The Chains that Bind us
by Jknight3135
Summary: Everything in the universe is held together by bonds, of different shapes, sizes, strengths and colors. But somethings are bound together stronger than others, and they may not even know it, so when chains are forged, and tested in the fires of a relationship like theirs, will it hold? or will their chains break?
1. Chapter 1: Ravenings and Jinxes

**A/N: So I've already written one Jinx an Raven fic, a short and sweet little love at first sight deal, but this will be a much deeper, longer, and hopefully better story. This first chapter is mainly exposition, things start to heat up in the next chapter, which is well along so you won't have to long to wait for that. **

**Oh and I kind of fiddle with some events, the Brotherhood of evil stuff, I don't really know enough about that part of the show to write confidently, and as far as the HIVE in this story they didn't dissolve after Brother blood just another new manager.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own or claim to own any of the characters, ideas, or plot of the Teen Titans. If you are looking for the people that own them you're looking in an awfully strange place for that.**

**ON WITH THE SHOW!**

* * *

Chapter 1: Ravenings and Jinxes

Raven had been feeling strange lately. Two years ago she had defeated her father overcoming her own prophecy, afterward she found she could express more emotion then she had been previously, but something was happening now, her emotions were acting strange. Not outside of her meditation obviously, her emotions we're still separated from her in Nevermore, it was there that they were acting strange.

Displaying facets of another emotion, wearing the wrong color cloak, simply doing things out of character. She had been talking to Joy about something when she displayed something that Knowledge would say, Joy was not an emotion that ever acted with the wise practicality of Knowledge. She had gone up to courage thinking it was knowledge because she had been in yellow. When she asked them about their strange behavior, they gave non-committal answers, though she knew they couldn't lie to her, so they must really not know.

_That_ had her worried, something was happening to her emotions and no one knew what. Although it hadn't really affected her yet, she was still in control of her powers, and if anything her emotions had been less volatile. It was easier for the emotions to manifest themselves, small shows of emotion she hadn't previously been known for, and was harder for them to reach their boiling point where they began to affect her control, although Beast Boy was trying his hardest.

She talked to Cyborg about it she trusted him with such things, and he had been to Nevermore. Unfortunately he was unable to help her determine why it was happening, he had told her to at least consider the fact it might not be a terrible thing. She was… considering it. As much as she hated it, she would just have to wait and see what happened.

Although these changes weighed on her mind she was currently more concerned about whether or not her friends were waiting in the common room ready to pounce on her because it was her birthday. They had not last year, which she had appreciated, but she didn't trust Beast Boy to hold out for two years straight. Sighing she decided she would just have to face it, getting out of bed to take a shower and then get dressed. A long sleeve dark blue shirt that had an attached hood, and a pair of loose black cargo pants held up by her gold and red jeweled belt. This had become her usual attire, foregoing the old costume for more practical and less attention grabbing clothing.

Walking down the hall towards the common room she could feel the presence of her teammates. She was usually the second one up, the fact all of her teammates were there before her did nothing for her hopes of a quiet morning, even if she did sleep in a little bit. However when she walked into the common room her friends were all in their usual places, Robin was leaning on the counter with the news and a cup of coffee, Star was next to him eating something… green, Cyborg and Beast Boy were on the couch playing a videogame.

Beast Boy looked back over the couch and blew once on a party horn. "Happy B-day Rae."

She walked over to the kitchen. "Thanks Gar."

She went about readying herself a cup of tea.

"We know you don't want us celebrating this for you, but we still got gifts." Robin says looking up from his paper, with Star practically bouncing with excitement.

"Ok, I'll open-"

"I will go and fetch the presents!" Star squealed zipping past and out of the common room.

By the time she returned her tea was ready and she was sitting at the counter quietly conversing with Robin. Starfire put the presents down on the counter and beckoned Beast Boy and Cyborg over. Starfire eagerly held one box out for her to take.

"I assume this is your gift then?" The dark titan asked one eyebrow raised.

"Yes, open it." The Tameranian replied eagerly.

She did, inside the small box was an assortment of rare herbal teas. She pulled a few of them out and took a deep breath. The calm scents of various herbs filling her lungs.

"Thanks Star, these are great."

"I am glad to have finally succeeded in finding a gift to your liking friend Raven!" The ecstatic alien literally did a back flip in the air.

After she put the teas to the side Robin slid a card down the counter to her, opening it she found a sizeable gift card to her favorite bookstore.

"Thanks Robin." He just nodded in reply taking a sip of his coffee.

Beast Boy handed her his present next. She moved her head to the side as she opened it so the spring packed streamers flew past her.

"Well I had to try." The green titan mumbled.

"You'll be cleaning those up." Robin said over his mug.

Underneath the streamers was an envelope with money in it, when she looked up to him with a questioning look.

"What? I know you'll appreciate that more than anything I would have gotten you."

"Thanks."

Cyborgs gift was last, inside the small box was a keychain with a pair of blue and black keys on it.

"The rest of your present is in the garage." The robotic titan replied to her confusion.

"CY…"

"Hey, I wanted to it was fun."

"… Thanks." She replied with one of her rare smiles.

He just nodded in return.

"Well I was going to go to the bookstore today…" Raven tested carefully in case they had made other plans.

"Dinner is at seven." Was Robins reply.

She put away her presents and was about to summon her soul self to teleport out of the tower before deciding to see what Cyborg had made for her. So she teleported to the garage instead, walking around the T-car to where the teams other vehicles were stored she found it.

A sleek black and dark blue motorcycle. A helmet rested on the seat with a note and a pair of fingerless gloves.

'Blue button is boost, careful this baby can fly.' –Cy

She smiled, donning the helmet and gloves, she started the cycle up.

* * *

The past year and something were not good on Jinx, not only kicked out of the Hive but actively chased by them, the worst was that her own team had gone against her. Mammoth and Gizzmo were her brothers, her family, and they just turned on her like that. Jinx was a thief, not a murderer, she _thought_ they would understand that. They didn't.

So she ran away, from everything at first, but she eventually returned to Jump, even if it was just the outskirts. Living in small apartments sustaining herself with petty thievery, a few picked pockets, a few stealthy night robberies. Never taking more than she needed, and never from someone who needed it more than she did. It was hard, especially at first, she had wanted to go back to the big robberies, and the rush that came with them, but the Hive were after her, the authorities would be after her _again, _and she didn't think she could deal with a big robbery. That kind of thing destroyed a business, ruined someone's life, she didn't want that, couldn't be ignorant of it any more.

She had thought about getting a real job, something she could use to sustain herself without thievery, but she knew she couldn't. Meta humans aren't exactly _rare _but easy to track and hard to hide. Any attempt to get a legitimate job would lead to a laundry list of her criminal activities. She couldn't hide her skin color, or even her hair she had tried to dye it, but something in her meta human genes made the hair indifferent to all attempts to change its color. She could disguise herself well enough to avoid detection in everyday circumstances, a hoody, and long pants were her usual choice. But staying in one place to long became dangerous, people started to notice things, you can't live in an apartment and not know some things about your neighbor.

It was usually the hair, while the skin could be written of easier, you don't just _have _pink hair. She had considered cutting it off, a buzzed girl was still more common than pink, but she couldn't that was her trademark. While she couldn't bring herself to buzz it she did shorten it, usually wearing it in a single short braid down the back of her neck with a few bangs remaining at the edges of her face.

So she had to move, every few months changing location. Over the course of her movements she had a few times where she thought she could really stay and start something new, but then the Hive would show up, once she had come back to them waiting outside her apartment, had to sneak off and leave everything. Another time they left a bomb, something had kept her late and it went off when she was a block away. That had really shaken her, Gizzmo was always their explosives expert, she couldn't help but feel he had made the bomb, maybe even set it. Now a year and a half later she was moving again.

The frequent movement had caused her to have lived in almost every suburb around Jump, she was now faced with a choice: Leave Jump city behind and go elsewhere, or move into the city proper.

She slowly walked down the street towards the apartment complex where she would be staying. Walking down the path by Jumps sea side she took a deep breath and slowly let it out, it was good to be home. Out across the water was a small island with a large building, Titans Tower. She had been inside it once, when her, Mammoth, and Giz had taken it in the Titans early days. How long had it been since then? Many years. She couldn't say exactly, the tower was somewhat a comfort, sure it symbolized the hero's that would lock her up in an instant, but it was also an undeniable symbol of Jump city, a comforting reminder of home.

Unbeknownst to her an off duty officer caught a sight, long enough and clear enough to warrant a call.

* * *

Raven hadn't thought riding would be this relaxing, as well as exciting. Moving through Jump's busy streets to the lone roads by the coast, cranking the speed up brought on an adrenaline rush, she had even pushed the blue button, Cy wasn't kidding this thing could _fly._ But now it was later on in the evening, the sun was beginning to set and she was cruising lazily along the deserted roads.

She had stopped on a bluff to watch the sun set, seven O' clock was calling but she had a little while longer. That was when her T-comm went off.

"Raven?"

"I won't be late don't worry."

"What? Oh! No that's not why I called, an officer thinks he's spotted Jinx in the city."

"Really? She's been gone for a while now." Thoughts of the pink haired sorceress drifted through her mind.

"Yeah, that's why I wanted you to check it out on your way back."

"Sure, where did he see her?"

"5th street down by the bay five minutes ago."

"On it"

Jumping back on her bike she took off towards Jump city's seaside. A short while later she was slowly cruising down 5th street on the bay looking for pink hair. She found it, a chance breeze caught a hood and pink hair spilled out for a few seconds before the owner quickly pulled the hood back up.

A breeze coming off the bay caught her hood and whipped it off her head for a second before she grabbed it and pulled it back on. She let out a sigh before walking down the steps onto the beach. Plopping down her duffle and backpack in the sand, she stood to watch the sun set over the bay.

The sound of crunching sand brought her attention around, a lone figure in a blue hooded shirt and black pants wearing a motorcycle helmet.

"Uh… hello?" Jinx asked, the beach was totally deserted at this time and the fact this person had walked up to within ten feet of her was a little bit strange.

"What are you doing here?" The figure asked.

That voice sounded familiar, but it was muffled by the helmet, that belt looks vaguely familiar as well…

"…Who… who are you?"

She took off her helmet letting purple hair free to sway in the breeze.

"Raven…" Shit, this was it, all her running and here she was off to jail.

Could nothing go right for her? Was her luck _that _bad? As soon as she was behind bars, Hive would know, and then she would be dead, but there was no running, maybe from one of the other Titans, but not Raven. You couldn't escape Raven, not without help, and no one had helped her in over a year.

"I… I" Her knees buckled, falling to the ground on all fours. "Damnit…"

She could feel the dread, the total and utter despair rolling off the woman in sheets. What had happened to her? This was not the Jinx Raven remembered.

"Jinx?"

"Go on take me to jail, I'm sick of all this bullshit anyway." She sounded tired, defeated, and with the voice of someone who had just been condemned to die.

"What? What happened to you?" Raven knelt down next to the thief.

"What's it matter? Come on stop screwin' around… just get it over with, you win, I en't fightin' you." She replied still looking away.

Jinx was a criminal because she found it fun, Raven remembered that about her clearly. They had often been against each other during Jinx's time at the Hive academy, robbing banks, shops, whatever. Raven remembered the mischievous twinkle that was ever present in her cat like eyes, the easy confidence, the witty banter. Jinx was the only one who ever engaged her in a battle of wits _during _combat. But this woman was nothing like that, something was wrong here.

"Well come on just-" looking up she didn't see the Titans blue boots as she had expected, in their place was a note.

'I'll be watching'

_Is this some kind of joke? … No Raven doesn't joke, at least not like that._

She sat there utterly confused, before picking up her things and continuing the walk to her apartment. Walking through the door and locking it behind her, she threw her stuff on the bed and immediately got in the shower. As steam filled the small bathroom she stepped into the warm water, savoring the rejuvenating effect of it.

_So what the hell was that all about? I'll be watching? For what? Its not like they don't already have enough evidence to throw me in the lock up for a long time. Why did she let me go?_

She let out a long sigh. _Well I'm not in jail now, I can't imagine it will remain that way now that the Titans know I'm here, maybe I should move again, head to some other city, should have gone far away from here right in the beginning… I tried that though didn't I? ran away to another city, but felt out of place._

_Of course you did you're out of place everywhere._

_Then where the fuck am I supposed to go?_

* * *

Raven arrived back at the tower just after seven. Appearing in the common room after stowing her bike. She pulled Robin over to the side, as the rest of the Titans were preparing for dinner.

"Was it her?" The titan leader asked.

"Yeah… she was different though, something happened to her."

"What do you mean, do you think she's dangerous?"

"No, I approached her, as soon as she recognized me she just fell apart."

"Fell apart?"

"She surrendered, no fight, nothing." She looked straight at Robin. "Robin, I could feel just despair, dread, pouring off of her, she spoke like someone who was condemned."

"That isn't right." Robin looked thoughtful. "What did you tell her?"

"That I'd be watching."

He nods. "Alright, that's all we'll do for now. Come on dinner is ready."

Of course Cy made a cake. They didn't decorate it or anything, it was just cake, supposedly for no reason. It was so obvious it was comical, it was good though. After dinner she wanted to talk to Cyborg, walking up to the cybernetic Titan while he was doing dishes.

"Cy, do you have a minute?"

"Hmmm? Sure what's on your mind Rae?"

"Did you know Jinx is back in Jump?" Raven asked leaning on the opposite counter.

"Yeah, Robin said you went to check it out, Why?"

"Something happened to her, when I found her she gave up, no fight, no sarcastic banter, nothing. You know that's not like her."

"Definitely, but what do you need me for?"

"Think you could hack into the Hive database and find out what happened?"

"Yeah, might take me a little while, but if you don't mind me asking why are you so interested?"

"I… I don't really know, just feels like I should." The dark titan replied quietly.

The big titan turned and shrugged. "Well you're the empath here, I'll trust your gut feeling."

"Thanks Cy."

"No problem Rae Rae."

With that Raven returned to her room, and Cyborg to his computer for a little snooping.

* * *

That night found Raven on the rooftop staring out over the bay remembering. Sitting on the tower's edge she let out a deep sigh.

_Why do I wish to know what has happened to Jinx? _

Remembering fights they've had, Raven was always paired against Jinx. The two magic users would always cancel each other out, and it would come down to fistfight, of course that always came along with the verbal battle between them. Jinx's very observant wit against Raven's calm intelligence, the physical aspect usually tipped in Raven's favor, while grace was a very part of Jinx her acrobatics gave her the edge in agility, but Raven had one of the best teachers in hand-to-hand. They were very evenly matched it was usually Jinx's ADD that allowed Raven to triumph, She had actually won a fight because Jinx was distracted by a coin she saw during a back spring.

_I enjoyed our fights, they were never dull, but I should get to bed._

The next morning Raven was sitting drinking one of the teas Starfire had given her, a smooth aromatic blend. Robin was looking through a file of some sort drinking a coffee.

"You know I've been looking into Jinx." Robin spoke up.

She just looked at him nodding to go on.

"There haven't been any confirmed sightings of her anywhere in the past year and a half or so."

"She's been laying low then." Raven stated.

"Yes, but why? She isn't hiding from us, the Hive are still active criminals, so why isn't she with them?"

"I think I can shed some light on that one." Cyborg said walking into the common room holding a file folder.


	2. Chapter 2: Chain Link

**A/N: Well here's chapter 2 now it was mostly done when I posted chapter 1 so don't expect updates to come this fast forever. Anywho this chapter ends the exposition and we begin to get to the story, but a few notes:**

**I use both their actual names and their hero identities, kind of interchanging where I feel which name should be used where. Jinx's real name will be Jenny Diebin, as it was in my other fic.**

**There will be a creature later in the chapter, when you get to it think of a shade from Dragon Age, for a general idea of what it looks like.**

**Anonymous reviews:**

**Melxwp:** _**Great beginning! I can't wait for the next chapter! Please update soon!**_

**Thanks! I hope this keeps up the expectations!**

**Reme: **_**This is really good! I think you portray personalities very well, and the  
writing isn't dodgy.**_

**Really? Awesome, those are two thing I fear I'm NOT good at**

**Alright I think that's it… yep that's it ON WITH THE SHOW!**

* * *

Chapter 2: Chain Link

"What did you find Cy?" The Titans leader asked.

"Well on a hunch Rae asked me to do some snooping on the Hive, and why Jinx ain't with em' anymore." The robotic titan throws the file down on the counter. "They've had an active KOS on her head for a year and a half."

"KOS?" Starfire asked, breaking her silence.

"Kill On Sight" Robin replied evenly.

"oh"

"Could you find out why?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, she refused to carry out a direct order to kill Kid Flash." Cyborg said evenly.

"Damn" Was their leaders only reply.

"She's been running from the Hive." Raven replied looking into her cup.

"Yeah, I was able to get a list of locations too, Hive doesn't fuck around, sometimes they would try and ambush her, traps, bombs, the whole nine yards. Her own teammates are doing some of this too."

"Did she not think to seek aid from us?" Starfire asked.

"We would probably have arrested her." Robin replied.

"And now? What are we _going_ to do?" Star pushed.

Robin thought for a moment. "We should bring her in, to the tower not prison, then we can question her, and protect her from the Hive."

"We should move quickly then." Raven spoke up.

The towers alert klaxons rang on. All the Titans looked to the screen.

"56th street, let's go!" Robin shouted.

* * *

Jinx was out for a walk. Usually this would be simply wandering around picking pockets when she found a good candidate, but today she was thinking of any other way to make a living.

_The Titans probably wouldn't know if I picked a few pockets, but if they interrogated me Raven would know the moment I lied. So how am I supposed to pay the bills?_

The hex caster let out a frustrated huff.

_Life was easier when it was black and white…_

"Ah good you're here." Jinx looked up at the sudden statement.

In the center of the street was some kind of being, long tattered robes, and loops of rusted chain draped over a hunched figure at least twelve feet tall, one glowing purple eye could be seen under a tattered hood, while the other eye was obscured by torn fabric.

"Ah shit."

* * *

Raven was first to arrive, she always was, what she found when she arrived was certainly not what she expected. Jinx was engaged with _something _that was firing chains at her, she was dodging and returning hexes, but the thing always blocked her attacks. Raven quickly went down to help the distressed caster, but the thing seemed to sense her arrival effortlessly blocking her first attack and fling one right back at her.

After a few moments of fighting, the other Titans arrived and joined the fray.

"Raven what is this thing?" Robin asked, assuming it was some type of magical creature Raven would know about.

"I'm not entirely sure, it's some kind of ancient though." The empath replied.

Raven continued fighting trying to determine how to defeat the ancient magical being when she saw Jinx get caught. The chains wrapped firmly around the thief effectively binding her, it only lasted a second however because the chains bulged and then burst with a whoosh of pink fire to leave Jinx standing with her arms encased in fire. _When did she learn that?_

Her musings were ended when the thing spoke. "Excellent prowess indeed, your binding will help both of you."

With that cryptic statement the ancient lashed out a hand, Raven tensed but when no chain came from its sleeve she was confused. A moment later she felt a sick feeling in her gut, and with a burst of dark energy an obsidian chain burst from her stomach, not doing any physical damage, but feeling as though someone was squeezing her soul. The end of the chain shot through the air into the ancient's sleeve and pulled taut, he repeated the action on Jinx pulling a black and pink chain from the sorceress, then it began to swing its arms around faster and faster swinging the helpless girls around like a yoyo on a string, until they were just a blur of pink and black, and finally smashing them together with a blinding flash of energy. The ancient chuckled. "I will return when you begin to figure it out."

With that the ancient faded from sight with the sound of rasping chains. The other Titans quickly rushed to their fallen comrade finding Raven and Jinx peacefully asleep in a seven foot deep crater.

* * *

Raven woke slowly finding herself in the Titans infirmary. Looking around confused she met the concerned gaze of Cyborg. "What… what happened?"

"Hell if I know, that thing swung you and Jinx around like toys then smashed you together, I honestly thought we were gunna find bits and pieces in that pit."

"But you didn't?"

"No we found you an' Jinx perfectly fine, looked like you were taking a cat nap together." The robotic Titan frowned. "How do you feel? Are you ok?"

"I think so… I feel fine."

"Alright, I'm gunna go get something see if she wakes up." He replied pointing to Jinx in the next bed over.

The Titan left the room and Raven turned her attention to the hex caster. She looked rather peaceful sleeping calmly in bed, the illusion was suddenly skewed when she rolled onto her side flinging an arm over her face and grumbling unintelligibly about school. Raven poked her.

The thief woke with a start. "I didn't do anything?!"

Raven sat there a slightly bemused look on her face.

"I… uh what happened?" The thief replied looking around.

"We don't know, that ancient did something to us, but as far as Vic can tell we're ok."

The sorceress rubbed her face tiredly. "So it was an ancient, I had a feelin', wait who's Vic?"

"Victor, Cyborg."

"Oh" The thief shifted around nervously. "You're not gunna throw me in jail are ya? Because you know I didn't do anything with that…"

"No, we know the HIVE are after you, so for the time being we're going to hold you at the tower."

The thief visibly relaxed.

"Right now I'm more interested where you learned that pyro kinesis." The empath spoke again.

"Saw that did you? Well I've always used a little magic with my hexbolts, magic books have been one of the few non-necessities I've allowed myself." She picked up the glass of water on the bedside table. "My hex energy also causes weird stuff to happen like this." With that she promptly lit the glass of water on fire.

"That's… interesting."

Cyborg chose that moment to walk back into the room, looking over at the two then the glass of water, his human eye twitched and he turned away mumbling about impossibilities and magic.

Jinx blew out the flame and drank the water.

* * *

A few hours later…

Raven was in her room trying to meditate, Jinx was down in the towers base being interrogated by Robin. Raven felt off however and couldn't quite concentrate, something seemed to constantly pull at the back of her mind and set her on edge.

_What is this? is it something that ancient did?_

The empath sighed tiredly.

_Maybe a shower will clear my head._

Meanwhile down in the tower's interrogation room.

"So you've been picking pockets for a year and a half?" Robin replied evenly.

"Yeah, I didn't have much choice." The thief replied fidgeting. _What's with the nerves? You've been through this before._

She continued to fidget nervously. "Are you alright? We aren't going to send you to prison, you know that right?" The boy wonder asked.

"Yeah, I know I just feel… off." _And why do I have a strange desire to see Raven?_

Later that night Jinx tossed and turned on her bed trying in vain to sleep. She was currently in the tower's visitor area, several rooms connected to a small common room similar to the Titans own quarters up stairs, the door to the rest of the tower from the common room was locked, not that that would keep her in it was more of a trust thing, the Titans we're tempting her to see if they could trust her. She had no intention of leaving however, this was the safest she had been in a long time. She waited a second allowing the irony of that fact to sink in.

Shrugging off the covers the thief stood and walked into the common area, the lights were off but her natural night vision was similar to a cat's so this was no hindrance. Sitting tiredly at the bar counter she resigned to the fact she would be getting no sleep tonight.

_I don't get it I'm exhausted but I just feel off._

"auughhblerfff…"

* * *

Upstairs at the top of the tower Raven was restless as well. Lying awake in bed staring at the ceiling, with no apparent prospects of getting any rest.

_I still feel like something is wrong, like I should be somewhere else._

Taking a deep breath she concentrated. _What is it?_

_Jinx_

Thinking on what was missing thoughts of the feline thief came to mind, at first writing it off as a distraction when Jinx was the _only_ thing that came to mind she decided to check on her. Teleporting herself down to the visitors common area, she was about to head towards the room Jinx was using when she spotted the thief spinning slowly around on a bar stool neck craned up to the ceiling.

"Do you normally sleep like that?" The empath asked quietly.

"Huh? Oh hey Raven, what are you doing up at this un-godly hour?" The hex caster replied drowsily.

Taking a seat on one of the couches. "I could ask you the same, I couldn't sleep."

"You either huh? Think it's something that ancient did to us?"

"Maybe… I haven't been able to detect any spells or lingering effects, it's either an extremely complex spell or something on a more basic level."

"Hmm, you're the expert." Jinx was slowly drifting off.

"Maybe, I'll try some more tomorrow." Raven slowly sank down from her sitting position.

Soon after, both girls were peacefully asleep.

* * *

The next morning Robin was heading down to the visitors area to check on their newest charge, walking into the common area he found something he never expected to see. Raven was sprawled gracelessly over the couch asleep, and Jinx was passed out at the bar counter.

_Did I miss something?_

Deciding not to wake the two Robin slowly retreated from the room.

"Robin? You look weirded out, what happened?" Cyborg asked while preparing breakfast.

The Titans leader sat down at the bar. "Raven was down there asleep on the couch, and Jinx was passed out on the counter."

"What were those two doing together?"

"I don't know, we'll have to ask when they wake up."

* * *

Raven slowly came too, and stretched languidly on the couch. _I feel pretty good considering I can't have gotten that much sleep, wait this isn't my room?_

Looking around the empath noticed she was indeed not in her room, but in fact on the couch in the visitors area. _Oh yeah I came down here to see Jinx, I must have fallen asleep… that's kind of odd… _Raven was renown for her ability not to fall asleep unless she wanted too, whenever the titans would be up late for whatever reason, Raven would be the only one not passed out in the common room.

A large yawn brought Raven back to the present, looking over the back of the couch she caught the sight of Jinx stretching her hands over her head. _She has a rather graceful curve to her body…_

The thief spun the stool she had slept on around to Raven. "Wow, I feel great considering I slept on a bar stool."

Raven just slowly cocked an eyebrow.

"What?"

Raven was about to respond when Cyborgs booming voice reverberated through the tower.

"BREAAAAAAKFAAAAAST!"

"Damn he can shout, does he always do that?" Jinx asked hopping off the stool.

"Usually" the empath replied. "I have to get dressed… I'll see you at breakfast?" Raven asked slowly.

"Definitely I'm STARVING." The thief replied walking back towards her room.

Raven teleported herself up to her room and began to get dressed, once again feeling that strange little tug at the back of her mind. _I have got to figure out what that thing did to us…_

Determining to try a few more techniques after breakfast, she headed down to the common room… Where Jinx was attacking a plate of waffles with a passion. Cyborg, not to be outdone was matching her bite for bite, while Robin looked on slightly disturbed, Starfire was cheering the two on, and Gar was sulking eating his tofu. Raven warily grabbed herself two waffles and sat down to eat. Jinx and Cy finished off the remaining waffles quickly sitting back stuffed.

"Damn, I haven't eaten that well in a long time." Jinx said contentedly.

"I haven't had someone keep up with me in a long time." Cy said wiping syrup off his face.

"How is it that you didn't make a mess like Cyborg?" Raven asked eyeing the thief's miraculously clean face.

"A little luck." Jinx replied snapping her fingers with a spark of pink.

"Clever"

"So, why were you two asleep in the common room?" Robin asked after a moment.

"I couldn't sleep, so I was just sitting out there when Raven came down." The hex caster replied.

"I couldn't sleep either, I had… a strange feeling and decided to check on Jinx, we talked a little bit and must have dozed off."

"That seems a bit strange don't you think?" Robin asked.

Nodding Raven replied. "Indeed, I want to attempt a few more techniques today to try and find out what that ancient did to us."

"I'd like to try a few things too, I don't know how much help I'll be because it's a magic thing but two heads are always better than one."

"_Three_ heads!" Jinx replied indignantly.

"Right" Cyborg glared at her. "You'll be on the roof?"

"Yes, it's the best place for using this type of magic."

"Hey, can we get my stuff from my apartment? I do have a few spell books that might help." Jinx spoke up.

"I'll need some time to set up equipment." Cyborg replied.

"Right, come on then." Raven replied gesturing for Jinx to follow her.

Standing Jinx was about to ask how they were getting there before she was turned upside down and pulled backwards through a pool of freezing cold water. "HOLY SUNUVA FUDGE BISKIT!"

Jinx blinked finding herself in the living room of her small apartment, with Raven staring at her with this weird look. "Warn me next time! Crimeny, you can't just do that to someone when they're not ready."

Jinx stalked off into another part of the apartment leaving Raven standing in the living room. _Holy son of a… what?_

It didn't take long for Jinx to gather the few things she had unpacked, re-pack them and pile it in the living room.

"A duffle bag and a backpack? Is that everything?" Raven asked looking at the small pile containing the entirety of thief's worldly possessions.

"Yup, gotta pack light to stay on the move." The thief replied shrugging.

_The things she's had to do just to stay alive… she's stronger than I knew. _"Ready?"

The thief took a deep breath. "Ready."

Coming out of the portal back in the tower, Jinx fared better the second time. Simply shivering once and rubbing her arms. "Jesus that feels weird."

"Well I am technically pulling you through the fabric of this dimension, through part of another dimension, and then back into this one." The empath replied.

"I need to figure out how to do that." The thief mumbled to herself.

"Grab what you need and I'll take us up to the roof, Vic is probably done setting up by now."

Nodding Jinx rummaged through her bags pulling out a few old tomes, and a single fingerless glove made of leather and chain mail.

"Is that…"

"A pyromancer's gauntlet, found it in an oddities shop a year or so ago, I can do some crazy shit with that, might not be useful right now but never hurts to have an artifact around."

Raven nodded slowly. "Right, is that all you need?"

"Yup, ready when you are."

Teleporting up to the roof, the two found Cyborg behind a small mountain of equipment.

"We weren't gone _that _long." Jinx said gesturing to the equipment.

Cyborg just shrugged and walked over to them. "Here, these wristbands will allow me to monitor your vitals, see exactly what this shit is doing to you."

Slipping the bands on, the two were about to begin when the towers' alert klaxons went off.

Cyborg sighed. "Ugh, no rest for the wicked eh?"

"I don't know what you're talking about I slept great." Jinx replied.

Raven smiled a little, and cyborg rolled his human eye, as they headed back to the common room.

"Rancid has been spotted downtown, Raven get us down there, BB you stay here with Jinx." Robin ordered quickly.

Nodding Raven began to preparing her soulself to transport her team, making eye contact with Jinx for a second a spike of apprehension shot through her gut, but then they were gone.

* * *

Gar wasn't happy about being left to babysit Jinx but knew better than to complain. As his team disappeared into a shadow he looked over to his charge, as the last wisps of Ravens' dark energy dissipated the thief's pupils contracted and the color drained from her face, her knees buckled and she fell to the floor.

* * *

Cyborg wasn't particularly fond of Raven's teleportation; it was unpleasant, but damn if it wasn't useful. Stepping out of the shadowy murk, the robotic titan scanned the area when a loud beeping brought his attention down to his wrist monitor, checking the small screen he was reading the signals from Raven's wristband. It showed clearly that her body was rapidly going into shock. "What the? Raven!"

Looking back to his teammate, she was doubled over leaning heavily against a light post breathing hard. "Raven!"

"I… ugh… I have to get back to the tower." She was quickly surrounded by shadow and gone.

* * *

Raven appeared back in the towers common room, she immediately found Jinx and the two embraced each other as if their lives depended on it. Standing there holding each other for several long moments, until their hearts began to calm, then letting go.

"What the hell was that!?"


	3. Chapter 3: Mind Body, and Soul

**A/N: Well here we go, chapter 3 alright. Took me a while but its 5K words so hopefully that makes up for it.**

**Anywho a few things, first off I'm not a girl, that is both for future reference, and part of a point. Since I'm not a girl, my sense of Fashion is different, I am literally limited because I don't know what some articles of clothing are called for the female gender, I'm trying ok? I have them wear what **_**I **_**think would look good.**

**Anonymous review:**

**Guest: **_**Very interesting can't wait for more**_

**Glad to hear it here's 5000 words more :p**

**Anyway thanks for all of those who faved or followed and reviewed it makes me happy every time I get one, and I always appreciate them.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Mind, Body, and Soul

"So this is what we found out…"

Cyborg was announcing to Robin in the Titans official meeting room, after getting back to the tower and running through all the tests they could think of Raven, Cyborg, and Jinx, had compiled all that they found out about what the ancient had done to them.

"Jinx and Raven have been connected at an extremely basic level, by some form of magic."

"How basic?" Robin asked.

"Being farther than about 100 meters apart begins to affect their psyche, nerves, anxiety, restlessness, that sort of stuff. Farther than 500 meters and it starts to affect them physically, numbness, shivering, headache, and nausea."

"So when Raven teleported a couple miles into Jump..?"

"Both of them immediately went into shock, and had their survival instincts screaming at them to get near each other again."

Robin looked deep in thought for a moment. "You can't dispel it?"

"I don't know the exact method it used to bind us, using an improper dispel could have… consequences." Raven replied.

"Right, so until we find that thing, you two have to stay together." Rubbing his chin in thought. "This is complicated since you're a former criminal, all of your warrants have expired, but the press would go crazy if they found out." Robin sighed. "For now you'll be off active duty Raven, until we come up with a solid reason for Jinx being here she can't be seen."

"Ok"

"And what about quarters? Raven do you want to sleep somewhere else or are you going to let her stay in your room?"

Raven examined the thief for a long moment; Jinx did her best to look innocent. "I'll see how it goes for now, in my room."

Robin nodded, then frowned. "This could make your patrols difficult."

"What? I'll be good!" Jinx replied.

"You cannot expect me to stay cooped up here until we fix this!" Surprisingly both Raven and Jinx replied in unison.

Robin sighed. "Alright, you've got patrols, but neither of you can be identified."

Raven just nodded, while Jinx looked considerably less enthusiastic.

* * *

"So what do these 'patrols' entail?" Jinx asked lying lazily on the couch.

Raven who was reading a book, replied without looking up. "We'll just be flying around Jump, watching out for trouble."

"Glorified police duty, awesome." The thief replied sarcastically. "Wait you said fly around jump, I can't fly."

Raven stopped realizing this. "I guess we'll use my bike then."

_A bike! You've gotta be kidding! No way am I riding around Jump on some goddam bicycle! Argh gotta behave though…_

Later in the evening…

Raven and Jinx entered the garage to leave for their first patrol, Cyborg was working when they entered.

"Hey, you leavin' on patrol?" The mechanical titan asked.

"Yeah, gunna use my bike, do you have another helmet?"

"Oh come on, it's bad enough we're riding a bike do I have to wear a helmet too?" The hex caster replied, exasperated.

The two titans stopped Raven holding a helmet about to offer it to Jinx, and Cyborg trying to hold his laughter.

"Hey that's a motorcycle helmet… just like you had before… YOU'VE GOT A MOTORCYLCE!?" Jinx shouted piecing everything together.

Cyborg finally snapped howling with laughter, while Raven cocked an eyebrow, an expression Jinx would find to constantly appear on the empath's face.

"What did you think I meant? An actual bicycle?"

Jinx flushed with embarrassment and avoided eye contact.

Raven pushed the helmet into Jinx's hands shaking her head, and walked around to her bike getting on, and motioning for Jinx to follow suit.

Jinx put the helmet on and approached the bike examining it. "Ever rode one of these before?"

The sorceress jumped slightly as Raven's voice came right into her ear.

"Oh, right these helmets have radios in them, sorry."

"Yeah ok, but no I've never been on one of these."

"Robin taught me how to drive so don't worry, now get on we need to go."

Jinx gingerly sat down on the small back seat of the sports bike. "Uh, I've gotta like hug you right?"

"Unless you want to fall off." Raven replied sarcastically.

Grumbling under her breath the hex caster wrapped her arms around Raven's midsection.

_Oh wow she feels… warm… not what I expected._

Blushing beneath the helmet Jinx scooted a little bit closer and adjusted her grip so she firmly held onto Raven.

"Ready?"

"Yeah"

Raven started the bike and took off out of the garage and into the late evening air. For some reason she felt… alive, invigorated, she could feel the warmth of Jinx's embrace around her stomach, the rhythmic tattoo of her heart. Accelerating down the long bridge that connected Titans tower to the mainland, a smile spread across her face.

Jinx thought she would be a little scared; riding 80 miles per hour on a sports bike's passenger seat isn't exactly the safest situation, but she wasn't, a strange calm pervaded her. She could feel warmth emanating from Raven's body, she could smell the salt of the sea, the cool of the evening air rushing past at an alarming speed, and she felt right, so she huddled close against Raven, and sat out the patrol in contented silence.

* * *

Raven slowly coasted the bike back into the Titan's garage, coming to a stop and nudging Jinx to get off. As soon as the thief let go her back and a ring around her stomach felt cold from where the thief had held her. _I didn't think it was that cold out, I guess fall is coming on strong this year._

Jinx got off the bike and nearly fell over. _Gah, my legs are asleep. _Bending over to rub the offending appendages to try and get the feeling back into them. After enough blood flow returned to stand properly she arched her back stretching after the long ride, and sighing as several audible pops came from her stiff spine. Their patrol was several hours long and it was now late into the evening, they had been given a longer than normal patrol because they wouldn't be on combat duty. She took off her helmet and handed it to Raven who was storing hers, and then followed her into the tower. Entering a long room with several washing machines and dryers against one wall and the other having several large storage cabinets. Raven looked at the cabinets thoughtfully for a few moments before opening one, scowling, and then opening the one next to it. Pulling out two black pillows, a comforter, and a sleeping bag, and sent them through a portal presumably into her room.

The two then went up to the common room, currently empty due to the fact it was eleven at night. "I'm going to make tea, do you want some?" Raven asked moving to the kitchen area while Jinx slumped down onto the couch.

"Tea? Hmm I can't remember the last time I drank tea, but sure." Raven went about making it. "So, where are you from?"

She didn't look but assumed Raven had cocked an eyebrow at her. "Why?"

"Curiosity" When Raven didn't reply immediately the thief spoke again. "Here you answer a question and I'll answer a question, fair?"

Sighing again Raven continued preparing the tea. "I'm from another dimension called Azarath."

"That's… not what I was expectin."

"Your turn, where are you from?"

"Germany actually, was there until I was two then came to the US."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed that."

"Ich bin ein Berliner! Anyway, what's was this Azarath place like?"

"It was calm, quiet, rather dull actually but I was there under special circumstances, so perhaps I'm not the best judge…"

And so Raven continued to tell Jinx about Azarath. At first strictly about the city itself, but eventually drifting to her childhood there, how she came to exist, how she overcame that existence, everything, and Jinx sat and listened. Quietly drinking her tea Jinx listened to the entire tale, a tale that seemed to demand to be told, something that had to be done, something the empath was powerless to stop. When she had finished with all of it, all of her life had been laid out before the thief, to steal, to use, to manipulate. Raven looked down into the cup in her hands, sitting next to the thief on the couch she waited, waited for the rejection, the hate that she expected.

The thief let out a short hollow laugh. "I thought the good guys were supposed to have nice childhoods, didn't realize some of em' are just as fucked up as the rest of us."

Raven looked at her surprised.

"Yeah, my past isn't all ice cream and bubblegum either. You know I didn't even know I had powers for a long time? Weird stuff always happened around me, but I never knew it was because I had powers until I was 12, that was the day I accidentally burned our house down, I had been playing around and got all excited when I started making these little pink sparkles, ran all over the house with little sparkles following in my wake." She stops and smiles humorlessly. "Those weren't even a 100th of how powerful I am now; if that stupid oven had been a year younger it wouldn't have set the whole house on fire." She stops and shakes her head. "Don't even know how I got out just ran, came back the next day and no one was there, I didn't know what to do, just started living on the streets." Her expression hardens. "Had to become a thief just to survive, HIVE picked me up a while after that. And the rest you know."

The two sat there in silence for a while, the combined sorrow of their tragic pasts deadening all sound.

"Thanks for… uh sharing that with me, I know it couldn't have been easy, and I know I'm not really trustworthy… but you told me anyway, and thanks for listening to my end too, I haven't told many people about my past." The thief replied before fading into silence again.

"You're the only person I've explained all of that too, the other Titans just have the basics, I've never gone that in depth for anyone else." Raven replied bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her head on them.

Jinx did the same with her knees, hugging them close. "We're pretty fucked up, you and I eh?"

"Absolutely mental." The empath replied.

* * *

Robin sat in his usual place at the counter, newspaper and coffee at hand. Cyborg walked in after a while to start making breakfast.

"Yo, where's Raven?" The robotic Titan asked.

"Sleeping I guess, they were on late patrol last night, I figured she needed the rest." Robin replied shrugging.

"Maybe, but it's not like Raven to sleep in, no matter what."

* * *

Raven slowly came to, dully perceiving her surroundings. Not opening her eyes, simply drowsing lazily in the warm embrace of her comforter. After a while coherent thoughts slowly took root in her consciousness eventually rousting the last webs of sleep from her mind. Slowly sitting up on her bed and looking over to where Jinx had slept.

Using the folded comforter as bedding and the sleeping bag for warmth she had slept on the floor, and although that may seem uncomfortable, the thief would swear that it was more comfortable than at least half the beds she had slept on in her lifetime.

The thief however was not in her makeshift bed, but sitting at Raven's writing desk reading a book and apparently taking notes.

"Morning?" Raven asked in greeting.

The thief looked back from her book. "Mornin to you too sunshine, I hope you don't mind but I've been perusing some of your spell books."

Raven stretched arching her back, and the thief watched. _Hmm I see she hasn't lost any of her curves._

"I don't mind, anything of consequence is in a language you couldn't read."

"I noticed that actually, I'm fairly certain you have a few books full of doodles, no way was some of that actual writing." The hex caster replied wryly.

Raven hopped off the bed and walked over to Jinx looking over her shoulder to see what she was reading. "A book on telekinesis?"

"Yup, that's the base of my attacks."

"It is?"

"Yup, my powers are a strange mix of magic and meta, my body naturally produces this 'Hex Energy' I can channel that energy into powering a spell like a normal mage would channel their mana."

"Huh, so your hex bolts are just telekinetic blasts powered by hex energy?"

"Bingo, powering a spell with hex energy changes its properties, that's why I get the weird burning water fire and stuff… it also seems to manifest only in pink." She pauses for a moment. "Gizmo once explained it all scientific to me, my hex energy is a literal conduit for probability, and if implemented properly I could literally bend the laws of physics, unfortunately I haven't found the right spell yet."

"As if _you_ being able bend physics would be a good thing."

"I know right? That's like end of the world scenario right there." The thief replied grinning.

Raven cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What? It's true, I aint gunna just lie right to your face like that."

"I think that's one of those things you're supposed to lie to people about Jinx."

"There's no precedent for this kind of stuff! How am I supposed to know that?"

"BREAAAAAAAKKKKFAAAAAAAST!" The two girls jumped slightly from Cyborgs shout.

"Huh, I guess I slept in a bit, that's… unusual." Raven said.

"It is?"

"I get up at the same time every day, excluding extreme circumstances."

"The late night patrol isn't included in that?"

"No, by extreme circumstances I mean serious injury, or not sleeping at all for several days."

"That's pretty extreme."

Raven shrugged. "It's part of the half-Demon thing."

"Riiiiight, well I don't know bout you but I'm starvin, so shall we head on down?"

"Just let me get dressed."

* * *

Shortly after breakfast found the Titans in their usual positions plus one Jinx. The alarm klaxons went off disturbing the peaceful daily routine, all the Titans jumping into action, and Jinx just startled.

Raven was about to start summoning her soulself, when Robin interrupted. "Raven you're here with Jinx, Titans to the garage!"

Raven deflated letting her powers dissipate. "Oh right…"

The rest of the Titans ran out to respond to the call leaving Raven watching after.

"So we should totally have a party while they're gone." Jinx spoke up.

"No"

"But"

"No"

"Aww come o"

"No"

"Fine what do _you _want to do then?"

Raven thought for a second. "Meditate, I should check on my emotions."

"Do wha?"

"Come on we need to go to my room."

The thief got up and followed the empath to her room, and waited while she unlocked a small jewelry box and pulled out a very ornate looking mirror.

"Remember how I told you my emotions were separated and contained within my psyche?"

"Yeah."

"Well this is how I check on them, so when I go through the mirror _don't touch it."_

Jinx just nodded a little scared.

With that Raven looked into the mirror and disappeared into it, allowing it to fall face up on the bed.

_It's not worth your life she has plenty of other nick-knacks to examine around her GERK_

Jinx was pulled from her thoughts as a black chain materialized from her midsection leading into the surface of the mirror. The chain suddenly went taut. _Oh shit_

* * *

Raven landed gracefully down onto the barren terrain that made up her mental landscape, and was about to set off towards the first gate when she heard a shout from behind her, turning around just in time to catch Jinx full force in the chest tumbling backwards through the gate.

"OOOF!"

Jinx opened her eyes and lifted herself up so she was eye to breast with Raven, her face alit with crimson and she quickly scrambled off the Titan whose face was also alit with another type of crimson.

"**I gave you ONE direction!"**

"Wait wait wait, I didn't look at It I swear there was this chain and."

"Sup'?" came another voice interrupting Jinx's pleading.

Both girls looked to see another Jinx, dressed in an adventurer style version of Jinx's old outfit in green, including leather boots, fingerless leather gloves, and a green cap.

"Jinx?" Raven stared dumbstruck.

"Link?" Jinx asked confused.

"Hi" The adventurer returned.

A second later another came out of the foliage a few feet away. This time it was Raven in a green adventurers outfit much more like Raven's current attire, topped off with a green cloak, hood down and her hair in a Viking braid, and her knuckles to elbow wrapped in white bandage cloth.

"What is going on?" The thief asked loudly.

Raven stood up and went over to her counterpart. "Brave what's going on why is there a copy of Jinx here?"

Jinx's copy removed her cap and bowed dramatically. "Name's Moxie, pleased to meet cha."

Raven just stared at her for a second before Brave spoke up. "As far as I can tell, she like Jinx's version of me, you know 'You got Moxie' just another word for bravery."

"Ok, but why is she here? This is my head." Raven asked.

"Hell if I know, she fell out a the sky when the ancient whooped us around." She paused for a second. "Damn good sparring partner too."

"But my head isn't all split up like Raven's" Jinx spoke up.

Brave just shrugged. "You should go find Knowledge, she might have a better idea of what's going on, I don't know the way anymore either, all the gateways got shook up when we got whipped."

Raven sighed. "Right come on Jinx, we'll have to do this the long way."

As they started to walk off Brave and Moxie broke out into a sparring match, flying into a flurry of kicks and punches before the two lost sight of them in the trees.

"So that was…?" Jinx asked.

"That was my representation of bravery, since my emotions are split she is essentially me with just bravery and other similar emotions."

"And the other one was my representation of the same thing?"

"It would appear so, apparently whatever that ancient did bound us together even here, that must be why you were pulled through the mirror."

"I told you I didn't do anything."

"Ok sorry, but now we have to go through each plane to get to the end and I don't know where along the way knowledge will be."

"Do you think each place will have another me?"

"I would assume so."

By now they had arrived at another gate passing through it they arrived in a meadow of flowers.

"Oh god this is Happy's domain." Raven said.

"SQQUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEE!" A pink clad Raven bounded up to them, wearing pink cargoes, and cloak. Nearly tackling Raven in a hug.

Jinx's copy popped out of a clump of flowers, wearing her hair up in its old horns, and her old outfit in pink.

She ran up to them. "Hi, I'm Bliss!"

Happy let go of Raven to stand next to Bliss. "Isn't she the best? We've played all kinds of games!"

"We played tag, TAG!" Bliss shouted.

"That was GREAT!"

"And Hide-N-Seek!"

"And"

The two emotions continued to talk at a high speed babble, while Raven pinched the bridge of her nose, and Jinx stared slightly dumbstruck at the two.

"Happy!" Raven said loudly.

She paused. "Yes?"

"Do you know where Knowledge is?"

"No, but you should play a game with us! We could play anything." With that she began to rapidly throw out ideas for games as Raven pinched her nose again.

Jinx reached out and poked Happy. "Tag, you're it."

Bliss suddenly took off running and Happy leapt off after her.

"Quick let's get out of here." Jinx said pushing Raven along the path.

"Good idea."

"Yeah, that is way too much energy in one place."

"She alone usually gives me a headache, now there are two."

"Yeah, easily distracted at least."

They quickly walked through the next gateway into a dimly lit hallway with a plush dark purple carpet.

"This is Love's domain." Raven said apprehensively.

They advanced down the hallway into a bedroom. A large round bed that looked just like Raven's actual bed took up the center of the room, light giggling could be heard from beneath the sheets.

"Love? You mean lust." Jinx said.

"There similar enough to where she personifies both." Raven replied.

"Oh we have guests." A voice said.

Love emerged halfway from under the blanket propping herself up on her elbows, she had no clothes on and her hair was in a peculiar state of looking both immaculate and like someone had just run their hands through it.

"Hey cutie, what's up?"

"Love' do you know where knowledge is?" Raven asked tiredly rubbing her face.

Jinx face turned red as tomato, and was trying her hardest not to look at the half naked Raven.

"No, but I think Ardor did." With that another head came out from under the covers. Crawling along Love's body so she was embracing her from behind, and nuzzling her neck.

"Hi, I'm Ardor."

Raven looked to the two emotions on the bed, she had become used to such displays from Love, but she had never thought to ever see her with a partner. She never thought to see herself with a partner either, seeing Love in Ardor's embrace struck a chord in Raven. _I'm doomed to be alone aren't I? Because who could ever love a demon?_

She sighed tiredly. "Do you know where Knowledge is?"

"I do, come on Love let's get dressed and go with them."

"Mmmm there are some beautiful views from the library I'd like to show you."

"Deal"

Raven and Jinx quickly turned away as the two dressed, when they were clothed again they turned to face them. Love had a warm looking purple sweater, a pair of black jeans, and Raven's usual cloth boots. Ardor had a purple T-shirt with white and purple striped long sleeves underneath, black and purple cargo pants, and regular black converse, her hair was in a short braid like Jinx's currently was.

"Come on she's just through here." Ardor said leading the other three with her through another gate and into a huge library. Raven quickly walked in with Love trailing behind, but Ardor pulled Jinx to the side to whisper in her hear.

"She really likes it when you nuzzle her neck, mkay? Just a tip for when you get in bed with her."

"Hey, I'm not after her! It's creepy enough our emotions are sleeping with each other." Jinx replied exasperated.

"Oh there was no sleeping involved."

"Eaaagh!" Jinx quickly ran off to find Raven.

"Hmph, you can't lie to me about who you want to get in bed with." Ardor whispered to herself, before wandering off to look for Love.

Jinx caught up with Raven and they found Knowledge listening raptly to a wildly gesticulating Jinx, as they both sat at a table in the center of the library. Knowledge was wearing Raven's current outfit in yellow, with the addition of a cloak, and some smart frameless glasses, with her hair up in a bun with one of those Chinese sticks in it. Wisdom was dressed in black cargoes and a yellow hoodie and a pair of black frame glasses.

"Knowledge." Raven said.

"Hmm? Oh good you're here, this is Wisdom." Knowledge said gesturing to Jinx's copy.

"Good do you-"

Knowledge interrupted Raven. "You have to find some music."

"Wait, what?" Raven asked confused.

"Music, Wisdom has been telling me all about it, we should also learn to cook, and maybe draw, there are some movies we should see too."

Jinx edged around to stand next to her counterpart. "What did you do to her?"

"She's crazy smart right?" Wisdom gestured to the huge stacks of books. "Crazy smart, but she has no cultural knowledge, music, food, movies, even books! All she reads are texts and history, never any actual stories!" She pauses for a second. "So I've been telling Knowledge all about it."

"Ok ok. But do you know what's happened?" Raven asked stopping Knowledge from continuing with her list.

Knowledge paused and took a breath. "Right, that's important, Wisdom and I talked about that, we think that this bond the ancient created links us together much more intimately then we first believed."

Wisdom spoke up. "Physically" She counted off one finger.

"Being apart affects our body's ability to function." Knowledge said.

"Two mentally." Wisdom counted off another finger.

"Distance also affects cognitive ability, and mental function."

"Three emotionally." Wisdom counts another finger.

"Our emotions are tethered together somehow, that has pulled Jinx's undivided mind into a state similar to our own."

"And four."

"We believe it may go as deep as to tether our very souls together, we don't know for sure but it seems to be that way."

"It's not all bad though, it also appears being in close proximity improves our emotional state to be happier, or at least content, moderately pleased if you will." Wisdom said.

"This could get complicated then. Can you think of anyone who might be able to advise us on a course of action?" Raven asked.

"Give me some time, and go find some music, and I might be able to dig something up."

"Right, do you know whose next along the path?"

"Has to be Timid, or Rage, and you know Rage is always last, doubt that has changed."

Raven nodded. "Alright let's go Jinx."

"Right behind you."

They began to make their way out of the library, on the way Jinx caught site of Love and Ardor standing on a balcony with Love embracing Ardor from behind affectionately. Ardor leaned her head back into Love who in turn nuzzled her neck.

Jinx sighed a pang of longing tugging at her heart. _I've never had someone to love before…_

Her early love life consisted of being a street urchin, being in HIVE, and then being on the run, so no time for finding love. Clutching a hand over her heart she followed Raven through the next arch into a huge maze.

"Timid's domain?" Jinx asked pushing her feeling aside.

"Yeah, come on."

They walked into the maze allowing Timid to guide them through the path before coming to her small room at the center of the maze where timid sat knees curled up to her chest on the bed, Jinx's copy similarly beside her. Timid wore the same as Raven plus a grey cloak, too timid to change. While Jinx's copy wore the old outfit in all black with white instead of pink stripes, the only difference was that she was wearing a long reaper style hood, hiding all of her face besides two glowing white eyes.

"You are..?" Raven asked.

"Fear." Jinx's copy replied. "A year and a half of being chased will do that to you." Fear spoke in a low whisper with a slight rasp.

Jinx and her emotion locked eyes for a moment. _That's not the only thing I fear…_

"She's good company though, good at listening." Timid replied with a shy smile.

"I enjoy it here, it's quite, and safe, and Timid is a good friend." Fear replied quietly.

"Then perhaps you can help her tame her fears Timid." Raven said.

"I'll try."

"Maybe with some time I could go back to being Shy." Fear replied quietly.

Jinx just nodded stiffly. "Come on we should go." Raven said pulling Jinx with her.

They walked back into the maze allowing Timid to show them the path.

"So why was yours Timid and mine was Fear?" Jinx asked after a while.

"They are similar emotions, but you have had more reason to be scared than Shy in recent years."

"Got that right." Jinx muttered under her breath.

They kept walking until they came to the gate, they stepped through into a realm of lava and obsidian. One long strip of obsidian surrounded by a sea of lava with a few jagged pinnacles of obsidian jutting out. At the far end was the final gate that would lead back out through the mirror, in front of it two figures stood. As they approached they could make out details. Rage wore a suit of crimson and jet black armor and a tattered red cloak, the handle of a spear poking over her shoulder. Jinx's copy was a bit different, a close fitting black and red leather jacket with a demented bunny hood that came up over her head so her eyes were looking out through two hole here the rabbits should have been, rugged black pants and pointed jester boots, she held a large two handed great sword in one hand, and had a crazed look to her.

"Rage." Raven greeted her counterpart.

Rage just nodded.

"And you are…?" Jinx asked looking at her counterpart.

"Chaos." She replied breaking into a mad cackle. "You don't really get angry, not like her anyway." Chaos said gesturing to Rage. "You get psychotic, absolutely nutty frenzy, kill everything in sight, madness."

"Yeah that sounds right." Jinx replied warily.

"Hehehehe course' it's right I would know." Chaos replied. "Now go on, Rage owes me a rematch and I wouldn't want little ol' you to get caught in the crossfire." She said crouching into a ready stance while Rage pulled the spear off her back, smiling wickedly.

"You're on."

Raven and Jinx quickly exited through the last gate, falling into Raven's room. Jinx picked herself up off the ground.

"Weirdest day ever." Jinx said.

"I once spent a while in Starfire's body." She seemed to weigh that in her mind for a bit. "Yeah that's was weirder than this."

"I didn't ask, for once I wasn't curious." Jinx replied.

Raven started laughing after a bit Jinx started too, Cyborg nocked and opened the door.

"Hey we're… back?" The two stopped and looked at him before resuming their laughing fit, as Cyborg slowly exited the room.

The two managed to calm down after a minute. "Hah, you're going to be the death of me." Raven replied panting.

"Amen sister"

* * *

**E/N: Well there you go, explained quite a lot this chapter, I skimmed over Raven's telling off her childhood and whatnot because I assume most of you will know it already, and don't need to read it again, but if anyone doesn't know it, tell me and I will type up the explanation and send It to you. Yes really.**

**I also mentioned a bit of how their magic works, Jinx is going to branch off a bit and learn some new stuff, Raven will stick mostly to empathy but will learn some new stuff too, if anyone wants I'll put a more in depth explanation of how magic works in this universe, as I have fairly different ideas about it than are commonly used.**

**Lastly I really enjoy hearing from you guys, in a review or a PM whatever, I personally enjoy talking to you guys, one review actually sparked a tangent and I traded PM's with them all day. No joke.**

**Thanks for reading Jknight out!**


	4. Dissertations on Magic

**A/N: Alright several people asked for a description on how magic works in my Universe, and rather than tack it on to the beginning of the next chapter I'm making it its own, to get it out quicker and allow for it to be easily updated with any questions people may have.**

**So if you read this and still have questions, shoot me a PM.**

**And I got a beta reader, which is totally frikin sweet, less grammar and spelling issues. **

**Anonymous Reviews!**

**Guest: Very great job my friend I have never read a raven and jinx story like this  
and it has me extremely interested to say the least can't wait for more**

_**Glad you like it!**_

**TUYET PHAM: nice story, keep it up. I like the idea and the plot you've put  
together so far, it's nice to see new stories about Raven/Jinx that aren't  
plotless or are really short. I really liked it.**

_**Thanks! I'm glad that the story I've put forward is unique enough to stand apart from other fics.**_

**I hope this doesn't get too technical for anyone, if anyone needs clarification PM me I'm always up for a chat.**

* * *

A description of Magic

Mana

First off the basics, Mana is energy; it exists everywhere and affects everything in some way. However conventional technology has yet to be able to even detect its existence. Some places attract more mana than others, some attract less but there is always some. Mana is an energy of life, when a new life is created, whether the seeds of a plant or the baby of a creature, when they are first considered new life, mana coalesces into its life force. Mana is the raw energy used to cast a spell, when a mage casts a spell they are using concentration to change mana into another form of energy.

The Ability

The ability to use magic is based on an individual's ability to absorb and store mana, and then project it in another form of energy, something that one can only be born with. The ability to use magic varies from species to species, all Demon can inherently use magic, but most humans do not have the ability, ect… It is theorized that a race's magical ability is inversely proportionate to its capacity for science. Humans who are technologically advanced, have a small chance to be able to use magic, Demons which can use magic indefinitely, are only at a very basic level of advancement. There are however a few exceptions some race's use an advanced technology powered by magic.

Casting Magic requires the caster to draw from the mana their body has naturally absorbed from the world around it, the amount of mana any one person can store is highly dependent on many factors, race, training, mental capacity, ect… The speed at which someone absorbs mana varies less but an experienced caster can focus on absorbing mana faster to resupply reserves, but only a slight increase can be accomplished. Drawing mana from the body is similar to running on your endurance, you can run for so long until you get tired then in a dire situation you can force yourself to go a little farther at the cost of some pain. Similarly with mana you can draw on it until you run out, then in a dire situation the body's energy can be used at the cost of exhaustion. Using all or most of your mana will also cause physical fatigue, less than running or other physical exertion, but more than can be expected if mana had not been used. In addition the high mental strain from the concentration needed to cast magic often leads to mental fatigue although with experience this is often reduced.

The Spell

A spell is the act of channeling mana stored in the casters body into another form of energy to perform an action. No magic words are spoken, no wand is waved, the ability to cast a spell relies on the casters ability to concentrate on the transfer of energy, and their knowledge of it. Elemental magic for example is often the easiest, most people are very familiar with the elements and how they work so it is very easy to concentrate on how and why things burn for a fire spell, combined with a focus point such as a the hands, feet, or a weapon, makes it easier still.

The schools

Magic is divided into two broad categories, First and largest is The Schools of Magic. This contains several more specific categories of magic, Elemental, Mental, Dark, Light, and The Fade Magics.

These categories are further broken down into specific areas of study, for example The Fade Magics cover Astral Manipulation, Inter-dimensional Travel, Possession, and Time. While Mental Magics cover, Illusion, Psychic manipulation, telekinesis, and so forth.

The primary factor that attributes a type of Magic to one of the schools is whether or not it can be learned by any magic user, if it cannot it is attributed to the second large area of magic.

Unique Magic

Unique Magic is any type of magic that cannot be learned or taught. For example, Jinx's Hex energy, no other magic user has the ability to create and use Hex energy, it is _Unique _to Jinx.

This category is more specific to individual cases and is only broken down under one of the five major schools. Jinx's Hex energy is a unique Fade Magic, while a Dragon's breath is usually a unique Elemental magic. This is the primary area of Unique Magics. All Dragons have a breath magic, but it is still a Unique magic because true Dragon breath cannot be learned or taught.

Raven

Raven is central to this story so this part is more in depth specifically on her talents, as they are _currently _in the story.

Raven's primary weapon is her soulself, the black shadow that she controls. The soulself represents the demon half of her, as one of the inherent powers that the type of demon she is, the abilities of Astral manipulation. Moving objects, empathy, possession, and creating portals, these are the primary powers granted to her by her demonic heritage. Any other magic she learns is through her natural ability to use magic and is not attributed to her demonic nature. She has an affinity for Dark magic but is not so engulfed by it that Light magic is excessively effective against her, and in fact she can use some light magic.

Raven's most prominent ability is her Empathy, it is how she controls her soulself and can be used to "taste" the emotions of people around her.

Jinx

Jinx is an excessively strange case, she is a meta human and a mage. Her ability to cast magic is not linked to her meta genes, it is in fact unclear why Jinx can use magic, or where her cat-like appearance and agility come from as it does not appear to be linked to her meta genes completely, as for her magic it is generally believed she was just lucky enough to receive the ability from birth. The mutation of her genes to make her a meta human gives her many differences over normal humans, but the most prominent is her body's ability to create Hex energy, essentially probability in energy form. It is not clear how or why her body produces it but she is capable of using it as if it were mana to power a spell. The strange nature of the Hex energy changes how the spell works in strange ways, a telekinetic blast becomes a bolt of chaotic probability that can cause things to fail spectacularly on impact, fire begins to burn things that shouldn't, and many more she has yet to discover. She typically changes the name of whatever spell she is using by affixing hex- to it, to differentiate it from normal magic, there is a large difference between a telekinetic bolt, and a hexbolt so it is important to differentiate.

However since her body is constantly storing hex energy she cannot store normal mana, and indeed cannot use it as hex energy permeates her being making it impossible to completely remove it from any spell she wants to cast, this will default most of her magic to a highly aggressive role as it is exceptionally good at destruction.

* * *

**A/N: Ok so a brief explanation of magic that I will use across my stories, Jinx and Raven's specific use of this magic may change story to story but this is my system.**

**Now I REALLY mean it when I say if anything is unclear or you want to know something that isn't listed, TELL ME. It is important to understand this for the story and I genuinely enjoy talking to you guys. And if your confusion is valid I will add too this so that more people aren't confused.**

**Now the next chapter will be on the way I don't pretend to know when it will be done but I shouldn't expect it to be an exceptionally large amount of time.**

**Jknight**


	5. Chapter 4: Two Steps to the Right of Mad

**A/N: Ok I had wanted to finish this chapter before Christmas but, big surprise; the holidays were busier than I thought they would be. I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter done. But anyway I hope you all had merry holidays and a happy New Year.**

**Ok now I have some music choices in here, now ****I ****both like and think they are appropriate for Raven, now if you disagree feel free to insert your own choices, and if you think you have a band that you think Raven would like feel free to tell me, and I might give em' a listen.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Two step to the right of Madness

"Why did I let you talk me into this again?" Raven asked staring morosely at one of Jump's numerous malls.

"You didn't Knowledge did." Raven's frown just deepened. "Awww cheer up I know the best places."

"Starfire said the same thing."

"But really who do you think will know places you like more, me? Or Starfire?"

"…Point taken."

"Alright first stop clothing."

"What's wrong with my clothing?"

"Nothing, you look good, but I _need_ some more and it will help ease you in to 'the shopping experience'."

"Right, you don't have much in the way of clothing do you?"

"Had to travel light, been a while since I could actually have more than I can carry in a backpack."

Raven silently nodded. Due to Jinx being, well Jinx Cyborg had lent her a holo ring to disguise herself with, she hadn't changed her look much but it was enough that no one would recognize her.

Jinx led the way as they moved into the mall eventually coming to a store called _The Warehouse _and the stores motif was indeed dressed to resemble a warehouse, inside the store the lights were dimmed and the floor was plain concrete. People wandered in and out of the store most of them dressed predominantly in black.

"Maybe this won't be terrible." Raven said as they walked in.

"See? That's the spirit!"

"…"

"Ah you're no fun."

They wandered about the store browsing through the clothing, Jinx got a fairly large amount to make up for her current lack, and Raven got a few things herself. After paying Raven teleported their bags back to her room.

"That is the best thing ever." Jinx said as her bags disappeared.

"It is quite useful."

"Ok next stop technology, you need a phone and a laptop."

"Why?"

"Music, games, and movies."

"Alright, lead the way." Raven replied with a sigh.

They walked over to the electronics store a short distance away. Jinx walked deeper into the store ignoring the help staff and began browsing the devices herself.

"Do you know what you're looking for?" Raven asked skeptical of the thief's technological knowledge.

"Yeah, I may not seem the type but I like technology, games, movies music that sort of stuff."

"Hmm, well I'm not ignorant, just un-interested."

"Good that means I won't have to teach you everything." The thief replied with a smirk.

Raven waited a moment while Jinx examined the laptops. "Do you have a laptop?"

"Hmm? No ain't got the room or money for one." Jinx grabbed one of the computers. "Here this one should do nicely, ain't to expensive either."

"Good, we'll get two then." Raven replied levitating another box off the shelf.

"Why?"

"One for me and one for you, if I'm going to be forced to use this you're doing it with me."

"But I _like _this stuff, besides I can't let you buy me a Laptop." The hex caster replied trying to grab the floating box without success.

"Why not?"

"Well… it's a lot of money, and I don't have any way of paying you back."

"Don't worry about it I have far more money than I'm ever likely to need." Raven replied walking off towards the next aisle in the store.

"What do you mean? You guys get paid for protecting the city?"

"Yeah, we're technically bounty hunters; we get a reward for capturing criminals, minus damages to property of course."

"And that's a lot of money?"

"Not particularly, but I don't really ever spend it on anything, and rather than let it sit I've done a bit of investing."

"Really? Huh so you probably do have a nice chunk O' change saved up." The hex caster replied thoughtfully.

"Yeah so it isn't going to hurt buying you a laptop."

"…"

So the two purchased the rest of their electronical needs, a smartphone and headphones namely.

Outside the store Jinx tinkered with the new phone for Raven. "Hmmmm, now what kind of music would you like…" Jinx thought carefully staring at the Pandora screen on the phone. "Maybe, the Birthday Massacre? Some Evanescence, Nightwish, and what the heck Three days Grace."

She tapped a few more things before handing the headphones, and phone to Raven. "There, I think you'll like something in there, just make sure to keep liking songs and it'll do the rest."

Raven took the offered items. "Right, I'll listen to some later when I don't need to talk to you."

"Ok next thing bring out those computers."

* * *

- Cyborg's workshop.

A quiet sound and a cold draft brought Cyborg's attention to two boxes that had just materialized on his workbench. Walking over he noticed a note attached to them.

-Cy

Make these laptops the best ever or I will turn into a maelstrom of bad luck in your shop.

-Sincerely, Jinx

Slowly pushing aside his previous project he began opening the first box. _Well we don't really need a better microwave right now anyway._

* * *

- Back to the Mall

"What was the note?" Raven asked.

"Oh just some friendly encouragement to get those set up." Jinx replied smiling sweetly.

"I'm sure we have different definitions of 'friendly encouragement'."

"Yeah, probably," Jinx replied waving her hand in dismissal. "Anyway let's hit the food court I'm STARVING!"

Raven sighed but followed the thief towards the smells of food.

* * *

Later in the day back at the tower, the two sat on the couch exploring their new purchases. Raven sat examining the phone jinx had bought her.

"Hey Raven I… uh well…" The thief blushed. _Damnit why is this so hard! _"I just wanted to say thanks for buying the laptop for me, I really missed having one and you really didn't have to do that…"

Raven pulled her hood back revealing her new headphones; she looked at the thief slightly quizzically.

"You…" Jinx threw her hands up in the air. "Forget it, I tried!"

Raven smiled to herself and started the music.

The time passed and Jinx showed Raven several of the uses of both the computer and phone, they were currently exploring the entertaining properties of Minecraft while the rest of the Titans went about their daily business.

Over in the kitchen Starfire and BeastBoy had their faces pressed up against the microwave window watching as BB's tofu slowly rotated.

"Are you certain the tofu product is microwave safe?" Star asked.

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Robin sat on the other side of the couch from the two girls, occasionally sparring them an appraising glance. While Cyborg was preparing some real food whistling to himself.

….

BOOOM! BB's tofu suddenly exploded in the microwave, severely startling the two people inches away from the window. BB jumped back startling into a turtle and falling into the sink, Star also jumped, into the air and reflexively vaporized the microwave with a starbolt. Cyborg missed the flip on his pan dumping half of his food onto the stovetop, Robin jumped into a ready stance, rapidly scanning the area. Raven accidentally destroyed the perfectly innocent couch cushion she had been sitting on, and Jinx's hair poofed out into a frizzy pink staticky puff.

"DMNIT BB DID YOU PUT THAT GARBAGE IN THE MICROWAVE AGAIN!?" Cyborg roared.

"Uh…" BB replied while Star was helping him out of the sink.

BB took off with Cyborg chasing after him.

"Oh dear…" Star replied looking after the two, then back at the smoking remains of the microwave. "oops…"

Robin relaxed his stance sitting back onto the couch shaking his head.

Jinx looked down at Raven now sitting in the empty space where a cushion should have been, Raven looked back at the poofy haired thief.

"You look ridiculous." Raven said.

"At least I didn't vaporize anything." The thief retorted with a smirk.

"You're lucky I didn't vaporize your laptop." Raven replied standing.

"Hey, you paid for this remember?" The thief replied following Raven out of the room.

It was a few uneventful days of sitting around and going on patrols for the two after that, but Raven eventually got a signal from Knowledge that she had worked through her archives

"So we're going back into your head?" Jinx asked standing in Raven's room.

"Yeah, we need to go and talk to knowledge, see what she's found." The empath replied "But I want you to go through the mirror first this time."

"Hmm? Why?"

"I want to see this chain that dragged you in last time."

"You still don't believe me, do you?"

"I'm… somewhat skeptical…"

Jinx just glared at the dark titan. "Fine just to prove to you that I wasn't lying."

Jinx snatched up the mirror and stared into it; a giant black hand reached out and pulled her in.

Jinx appeared flailing and screaming into the air, landing in a huge pile of pillows

"Oh what the?" Jinx examined the area. "This isn't Nevermore."

A few moments later Raven came flying out of thin air into the pile of pillows. Standing up she walked over to Jinx who was staring out into space.

"Jinx, where are we?"

"Down the rabbit hole." Jinx replied with a Cheshire grin.

"That's not helpful Jinx."

"No really look." Jinx replied pointing upwards.

Craning her neck back Raven indeed saw they were at the bottom of what appeared to be a huge rabbit hole, with random pieces of furniture, cutlery, and other odd objects imbedded in the walls and floating around the open space.

"Is this… your head?" Raven asked slowly.

"If I had to guess." The thief replied. "Well come on let's go find knowledge."

"How do we get out of here?" Raven asked not seeing the usual gateways leading to other planes.

Jinx looked around briefly before taking off towards the wall. "Come on follow me."

Raven followed the thief as she climbed up part of the wall jumped onto a floating table and walked into a similarly floating refrigerator.

Raven came out of a trapdoor in a giant painting onto what appeared to be the wall of a giant room, far to her right was the floor, to the left the ceiling. Populated by giant and miniature furniture, both seated and floating.

"Now where are we?"

"This is Happy and Bliss's domain." The thief replied.

"How can you tell?"

Jinx just pointed off into the air where Happy was sitting in a floating teacup.

"HI RAVEN ISN'T THIS PL- whoa" Overbalancing herself the pink emotion tumbled out of the teacup and landed in a painting with a splash. Raven walked over to find the emotion holding onto a miniature sailing ship in the painting she had landed in. Happy swam over and hopped out of the painting dripping.

"Where's Bliss?" Raven asked.

"Right there." Happy pointed to a floating smile.

The Cheshire smile bobbed around materializing stripes and then clothing, then finally a body. "HI"

"Uh…"

"Come on the next gateway is this way." Jinx called.

Raven followed the thief, leaving the two emotions behind, as she jumped from furniture piece to furniture piece up into the air. Stopping on a floating table, Jinx looked around. "There" She then leapt off the table into a floating wardrobe.

Raven tumbled out of a doorway set in a tree, nearly tackling the thief. Looking around she found herself in a hedge maze.

"Jinx your mind makes no sense."

"And yours does?"

Raven opened her mouth to protest, closed it, opened it again, and then just sighed. "Where are we now?"

"Well from the maze I would assume Timid and Fear's domain."

"Right, lead the way."

The garden was cloaked in the semi-darkness of twilight, and was made primarily of roses, white, red, and blue. The red roses had extremely sharp thorns, the white held no fragrance, and the blue were cold as ice.

"Hidden dangers, empty promises, and traitorous friends." Jinx replied lowly as Raven examined the flowers.

The empath placed a hand on the thief's shoulder and squeezed gently.

"You're better than though aren't you?" Jinx asked rhetorically.

"If a demon halfling is a better person than most of the people you've met something is wrong." The sorceress replied sarcastically.

"Heh, oh yeah in case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit screwy." The thief replied gesturing widely to the area in general.

"I did notice that actually."

"Glad to see you two are getting along." Timid's quiet uhm er timid voice caught the pairs attention.

"Hello Timid, where's fear?"

"I'm here." Fear quietly replied peering around from behind Timid.

While the gloomy appearance and reaper hood were still in place the outline of a pale face could be seen under the hood rather than just the two glowing white eyes. Raven took that as a sign of improvement.

"Alright, moving on then, goodbye." Jinx said quickly before jumping into a well.

Raven floated after her waving goodbye.

This time they came out of a door in a large stone tower onto a giant chessboard. Around them loomed the marble figure of the white team, life size suits of armor. The tower, it appeared was the queenside rook.

Out in the center of the board Brave and Moxie were in the middle of an intense fight. Rather than try to break them up the two skirted around the side of the board and climbing down through a trap door on the side of the board.

They came into a large castle bedroom, large gallery windows let in the waning light of dusk, and a pair of glass doors were open out onto a balcony overlooking the sea, and a beautiful sunset. On this balcony Love and Ardor stood in each other's embrace simply looking.

Again the two avoided disturbing the two emotions instead crossing the room to walk through a large standing mirror. The next area was not like any of the pervious, which had large vista views of thing off in the distance. On this plane all was black, light seemed to filter in from nowhere to illuminate a long table set for tea, around it were countless bookshelves, some floating with their burdens floating about them, some on the ground. Piles of books also littered the area, and amidst the chaos at the seat of honor at the table sat Wisdom wearing a purple feathered top hat, wearing a Cheshire grin. Knowledge was sitting on a floating bookshelf reading.

While not much different than last time knowledge now had a messenger style bag with her, that likely contained a laptop and a pair of headphones rested around her neck.

"Good you made it." Knowledge spoke, getting off the shelf and moving to sit at the table next to wisdom.

Jinx and Raven sat down across from her. "What did you find knowledge?"

The emotion sighed. "Nothing directly, I couldn't find any mention of such a being anywhere in our memories."

"That complicates things." Raven replied.

"Indeed, I did think of a few places that may have the knowledge we seek however." Raven nodded for her to continue. "The Justice League might have something in their archives, or someone up their might know about it."

"True however, the JL are unlikely to help me as is, let alone with a known criminal."

Knowledge nodded. "The next is the Library of Azarath."

"Which we cannot get to."

"We can't?" Jinx asked.

"When Trigon invaded Azarath he distorted the dimensions position, I can't accurately open a portal to Azarath without more knowledge on its new position."

"Which the only likely place to get that information would be from a member of the JL." Wisdom supplied.

"Ah, a vicious circle."

"The Library of Atlantis would probably be our best bet on finding something." Knowledge continued.

"Wait wait wait, Atlantis?" Jinx asked.

"Yes, I've actually been there once, one of the monks of Azar knew of its location and allowed me passage to learn from the Atlanteans for a day."

Jinx just stared at her dumbstruck. "You've been to… Atlantis?"

"Yes"

"But we couldn't get there now?"

"No, I don't know its position myself, and the only place likely to find it would be-"

"The JL, right next option?"

"The old Library."

Raven's face darkened. "Of course that's our best option, why wouldn't it be?"

"What's this now?"

"The old library in the deserted section of Jump."

"That place? Gives me the creeps, what's so special about it?"

"There's a reason for that, that library was used by the worshippers of Scath, Trigon, it is where he used me as a portal to attempt to invade this world, it is not a place I wish to return to."

"… Well it's there or the JL, which would you rather deal with?"

The empath sighed. "We'll head to the old Library tomorrow, while I'd rather avoid it that is merely a personal preference, I fear the JL may attempt to apprehend us if we approached them."

"Really?"

"Yes, I believe they'd jump at any reason to apprehend me."

"Alright let's get out of here then, I'm getting hungry."

"Only Rage and Chaos's domain remains."

"Yeah, should be fun."

Rage and Chaos's domain was the courtyard of a castle made of dark red brick. The ever-present twilight was tinted red, and a headsman's block stood atop a platform at the far end of the courtyard.

The two walked towards their separate emotions. Raven approached Rage. "Can you handle going back to the Old Library?"

"I'm your demon half, not his anymore." The emotion replied slightly angrily.

Raven nodded, taking strength in the fact that her anger was her own.

Jinx approached Chaos. "This is some pretty crazy shit."

"Pffft, I could do better."

"I'm certain it'll only get crazier before this is all over."

Inx looked over to Raven.

"So when are you finally going to accept it and open Pandora's box Hmm?" Chaos said.

Jinx turned her gaze from Raven. "What do you mean?"

"Not yet then." Chaos replied standing. "Damn, I think it would be so much fun too." At this she started cackling madly.

"Come on Jinx, let's get out of here." Raven called.

"Right" Jinx slowly walked away from the cackling emotion.

_Ahhh she'll get it eventually I have faith in her. _Chaos thought to herself. _I have faith in myself HAHA_

She started cackling again.

* * *

Dawn of the next day.

"Are you ready?" Raven asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." Jinx replied.

With that Raven wrapped them in a cloak of inky darkness and they were gone. A few moments later they stood in front of the giant dilapidated building.

"Are you Shure it's safe to go in there?" The hex caster asked uneasily.

"No"

"Awesome, let's do it." The hex caster replied wryly.

The two walked up the steps and into the gloomy darkness of the building. Rows of shelves stretched on into the darkness farther than the pathetic light allowed them to see.

Raven lifted her hand and summoned a ball of light, and started walking off. "Now we search."

"Right" Jinx lifted her own hand and summoned a ball of fire, casting a pinkish glow on her surroundings. Jinx walked down the aisles examining the books, all of them looked old but some appeared _ancient, _additionally out of every dozen books she could read maybe five of them, and doubted out of those books any of them would have anything useful.

They brought their finds to a large table to examine them more closely. Lit candles illuminating the gloomy space. Throughout the day the piles of books around the table grew.

Jinx felt her eyes growing tired. _Man, I can't remember the last time I read this much, and this place is just so gloomy, it makes… me ah tired…." _Her head slowly drooped down to the table.

Raven walked back to the table levitating a pile of books behind her finding the thief sound asleep. Despite herself she smiled a little; she looked so peaceful, sound asleep surrounded by books. Rather than wake her Raven continued her study alone.

Jinx slowly awoke; she lifted her head off the table to find Raven sitting across from her. "Yahhhhhh, I fell asleep?" She asked drowsily.

Raven just nodded.

"How long was I out?" She asked beginning to look around for the book she had been reading.

"The better part of four hours." Raven replied evenly.

"Four hours! Why didn't you wake me up?" The thief replied now flustered that she hadn't been helping.

"I didn't want too."

"Didn't… want too?"

"You look very peaceful when you're asleep, I didn't want to disturb you." The empath replied evenly. "But I did find out a few things while you were asleep."

She pushed a book towards the thief open to a page with a picture on it. "This looks like that ancient that attacked us, but I can't read that…"

"It's in an ancient Chinese language, but it says that this ancient is an agent of balance."

"Balance? What does that have to do with us?"

"I don't know, but it never mentions him ever attacking anything like it did for us either."

"Do you think it's even the same thing? What if this is talking about something else?"

"I don't know, it could be, but I haven't found any other mention of him, the only other thing it says about him is that his name is-"

"Link"

The two whipped around to find him standing there.

* * *

**A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUN**

**Ok well I hope you enjoyed and as I've said before I love talking to you guys, I've had some great conversations with several of you and every review or PM I get keeps my mind on it, keeps me thinking and helps me get in the groove for writing. BUT I don't want you thinking I'm grubbing for reviews if you don't want to buff my review count send me a PM.**

**-Jknight out**


	6. Chapter 5: The Nature of Balance

**A/N: Here we go, this chapter took me some work to write not because of writers block necessarily but because I've been firmly stuck in Homestuck mode for the past couple weeks, that's an addicting fandom. But here we go, I left you hanging with that cliffhanger long enough.**

**this chapter ended up a bit shorter than the usual but I said what needed to be said and wasn't going to fluff up the length with pointless filler.**

**Anywho ON WITH THE SHOW!**

* * *

Chapter 5: The Nature of Balance

Raven and Jinx immediately crouched into ready stances, waiting for the ancient to make the first move. When he simply stood there for several minutes looking at them, they began to grow suspicious.

"What are you doing here?" Raven asked not dropping her guard.

"You two have progressed well, I believe it is time I explained some things." The ancient replied with a deep slow voice.

"Damn right it's time you explained something, what the hell did you do to us?" Jinx yelled.

"Hmmm, you will need to hear the beginning before I can explain that, but first come certainly there is a more comfortable place than this for long winded explanations." With that the ancient turned and summoned a portal. Like literally a door, a large gate to be precise.

He opened the gate and walked through. Jinx and Raven shared an apprehensive glance before going through the gate themselves. When they came out the sunlight briefly blinded them once their eyes adjusted they could see they were at the edge of a large open field, the gate they had just come through was part of a large stone gatehouse, square and squat, it sat with crumbling walls travelling off in either direction. The field was huge a few miles across in any direction it was lush and green with small flowers interspersed throughout, worn dirt paths cut through it and old cobblestone fences separated parts into large squares. On the far end of the field the outline of a city could be seen.

The two walked a few steps out into the area Jinx looking around curiously.

"Where are we?"

"I know this place." Raven replied. "This… this is Azarath."

"Indeed it is, it has been many years since Trigon so brutally destroyed this realm and nature has had time to once again regain balance." The ancient replied. "Come, there is a good place to rest and explain nearby."

The ancient began following one of the dirt trails off into the fields not waiting to see if the two girls followed him or not, but really how could they not?

And they did, at a distance but they followed him for about ten minutes arriving at the side of a lake next to a large tree, the remnants of a dock poked out of the water. The ancient situated himself by the shore.

"Come, sit."

Again cautiously the two went and sat in the warm grass a safe distance away.

"Very good, now the beginning."

I was called into existence when this universe gained sentient life, for when that happens a universe becomes alive. The collective conscious of sentient beings throughout the entire universe has a strange effect, it has been called many things across time and space but whatever you call it is nature, the desire to be in balance, the collective fragments of thought from the entire universe come together to form it, and it acts to maintain balance, of course a power so vague in description cannot maintain this balance by itself, the universe is simply too massive. So it creates agents to enact change to maintain balance and maintain it on a more local level. I was created to perform such as task for this area, and while perhaps not easy it has been… interesting, throughout all of human existence I have worked to maintain balance as best I could. In most cases I only effect generalities I can nudge people in directions, affect conditions, no direct interaction. The situation we now find ourselves in is more dire than any before, and so I must take drastic measures.

That is why I have bound you so. Now you two, like many millions of others, are bound together through the intangible ties of the universe, you two are connected much stronger than most however, and it was always destined that you two would be invariably connected in each other's lives in some way. What way that was or will be I cannot say, that is up to you, I can however affect the strength of that bond, and that is what I have done, in doing so I forced you two to be close to one another, to begin building more bonds, and to begin learning one another. This will be important in times to come, for you two are the only one's capable of stopping the catastrophe encroaching upon us.

The two girls stared at the ancient dumbstruck. "How? And what is this catastrophe? How can we trust you?"

"I suppose it would be easiest to show you, come follow me."

The ancient once again summoned a portal, this one dark and ominous more like the kind Raven summoned. They tentatively walked through.

Floating in space. The ancient had created some sort of bubble in space and from this place they could see _it. _

"What… what is that?" Jinx asked.

"That is a Wurm, they exist in the place between universes, destroying the dead carcasses an empty universe leads behind, and cleaning the junk and garbage that sometimes come from the many universes in existence. They are benign almost mindless creatures, but their role is vital, without them dead universes and temporal debris could interfere with living universe, this one however was accidentally brought into this universe through an anomaly. And now without purpose it is paving a path of destruction across this universe, I have heard of it from other keepers in faraway parts of this universe, and none have been able to stop it, as you see it now we are several thousands of miles away."

"That thing must be absolutely massive, how are we supposed to stop _that!_" Jinx asked.

"That is what makes you two unique, come back to Azarath."

They traveled back to their spot by the lake.

"Now as I have said people are bound together because they balance each other whether in friendship, love or even rivalry, two people balance each other out and form a strong bond. You two share a very unique strong bond, Raven: calm, cool, collected, Order. Jinx: fiery, spontaneous, clever, Chaos. Order and Chaos bound together to form perfect balance, two such powerful forces together in balance can perform truly amazing feats."

"Like what?" Jinx asked.

"That I do not know." He replied. "You will have to discover that on your own, all I know is that you two _can _do it, whether or not you will do it, is up to you two, now I must leave." He summoned a small leather-bound tome to his hand, handing it to Raven he said. "This contains Azarth's new location, this place will be your training grounds, I wish you luck you're going to need it."

And with that he walked through another portal immediately closing behind him. The two girls stood there after a while Raven started walking towards the city.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Jinx yelled after the Titan.

"The temple where I lived." Was all she said.

Jinx felt something in the brief look over her shoulder Raven gave her, so she simply followed the Titan off towards the city, hands in her pockets, deciding to give Raven whatever it was she needed here in silence.

* * *

Jinx leaned against the wall of the crumbling temple, Raven had gone into the room next to her about twenty minutes ago, but she respected the Titan too much to just barge in on her personal life. That was definitely something new. She took a second to mull over that particular thought; she and Raven had gotten pretty close in a very short amount of time, she at the very least had a whole new respect for the Titan and would call her friend wherever they were, but all that had happened over the course of a couple weeks.

_Maybe what he said was true and we have some kind of special bond._

…

_Guess that means we're the universes last hope too… never done that one before._

Raven walked out of her room. "Come on there's one more place I want to see."

They started walking off. "You know since we'll be training here it's not like this is your only chance to see these places, we can come back anytime."

"Training? So you believe him?"

"Yeah, I can't find a reason not to, strange as he is, I believe him."

"Hmm, me neither, but I cannot fathom how we're meant to stop that thing."

"God, never thought I'd be caught up in some mystical 'find your destiny' adventure."

"You and me both but I get the feeling nothing here is written in stone, that we could still fail, or choose not to act at all."

"I think I'd rather have it that way, rather than being told you will succeed, because where's the fun in an absolute?"

Raven chuckled. "I have a feeling most would not agree with that."

"Maybe, do you agree with me?"

"… I do."

"That's good enough for me."

With that they came into a large circular room.

"This is it?" Jinx asked walking out into the center of the room.

"Yes, this is where the spell was performed to split my emotions apart."

Jinx slowly walked around the room, tracing a finger along the wall. She stopped across the room from Raven. "Thanks for showing me this, I feel… like something connected… I can't explain it."

Raven shrugged. "I feel the same, I felt like I needed to show this to you, but I can't say I know why."

Jinx walked back over to Raven. "Think we should tell anyone about this?"

"I don't know, the JL may know of the Wurm already if it poses such a threat, but I don't know if we should tell the Titans."

"Well let's head back we can think about it over some food."

They walked back out of the city into the large fields around the city, walking side by side down the dirt path.

"This place is really quite beautiful, in that kind of calm nature sort of way, like looking out over a huge forest from a mountaintop sort of thing, does that make any sense?"

A small smile found its way to Ravens face. "I don't think it does, but I know what you mean, this place is different without the monks, I feel like when I was here growing up their presence was always there judging me, looking down on me for what I was, but now that they're gone this place is very peaceful."

"I'm not usually one for peaceful places but I could get used to having a private pocket dimension to relax in."

Raven smiled again.

* * *

Sitting out on a sand bluff just outside of Jump the two sat contemplating the sunset. Raven's bike and two helmets sat off to the side while Raven leaned against the guardrail, and Jinx was sitting on the ground next to her. And not for the first time, Raven contemplated the thief and their strange relationship.

_I do feel connected to her, but how connected? If asked I'd say we're good friends… would I have said that two weeks ago? We have become very close rather quickly; I suppose that is the nature of the bond we share. And can we really just call it friendship anymore… I do not know the depth of her feelings nor even the extent of my own feelings for her… and yet I can't picture myself without her now that we've been literally inseparable for the past week and a half… by the gods do I love this woman?_

She couldn't yet find an answer to that question within herself, and that scared her, she had never been in such a position before in her life, she didn't know what to do or who she could turn to for help.

A lachrymose sigh escaped her lips.

"Something up?" Jinx asked.

"Just… thinking."

"Seems we've got a lot of that to do ahead of us."

"It does."

"Do you wanna talk about it? Whatever it was you were thinking about?"

"I want to but I don't think I can, not with you at least."

The thief frowned. "Why not?"

Because I was thinking about you. "You… just aren't the right person, I don't know if there is a right person to talk to about it, but… I appreciate what you're trying to do anyway." Raven favored the thief with a sad smile.

"Well of course I'm not the right person to talk to, I wouldn't want to talk to me about feelings and stuff, but I'm here at least so talk to me."

Raven sighed again. "I don't know Jinx I'm confused, lost, I don't know what I want anymore." Raven said sliding down the ground with Jinx.

Jinx wrapped an arm around Raven's shoulders scooting herself next to the troubled Halfling. "You'd be lucky to know just what you wanted from life, most people think they know, but who can really say what it is they want?"

"Do you know what you want?"

"Someone who will love me, because I've never really known what that feels like before."

Raven cast a sidelong glance at the thief illuminated by the distant sunset. "I think there's hope for you yet."

"Oh haha very funny." Jinx replied rolling her eyes.

Raven chuckled. "Thanks Jinx, really I think I needed that."

"Anytime."

* * *

Later that night Jinx lay awake on her makeshift bedroll, thinking.

_My life has been so complicated lately. Getting caught and bound, Raven, this Wurm… I can't make heads or tails of anything anymore. It's probably my bond with Raven that's prevented me from doing some kind of acrobatic fucking pirouette off the handle…_

_I wonder if it's my connection to her that's confusing her so much…_

_She's acting as my balance but I'm her unbalance…_

_Man this is fucked up. I wish there was something I could do for her, but she didn't really tell me much earlier…_

_God when did I start getting all these feelings for her?_

* * *

**A/N: Story development abound! Questions? Comments? I'm eager to hear what you guys think.**

**-Jknight out**


	7. Chapter 6: History belongs in the past

**A/N: And here we go chapter 6, I know it took a while but I just finished school last Friday, so I've been busy with finals and such. I am now a free man High school is over and for me summer has begun. I hope to get more writing done over the summer although I am looking for a job.**

**Anywho, ON WITH THE SHOW!**

* * *

Chapter 6: History Belongs in the Past

Jinx sat cross legged on a large rock both hands outstretched, a small rock rested in her left hand. With a small flash of pink lightning it was in her right, then her left, right, left, right, left.

"Heheheheh… cool."

"Amusing yourself?" Jinx looked up at the dark figure in front of her.

"Yes, very much so actually."

Winking objects short distances was one of the many new magical talents Jinx had picked up over the past week and a half of training with Raven. Much of what she learned was control, that's what Raven did best, she could now focus her hex energy into a much larger variety of applications making a flame hotter or cooler focusing her magic into blades and waves or bolts, more effective and energy efficient than her previous blasts. Raven had learned a few new things as well although the majority of what she learned was martial, Jinx was agile like a cat and she had been teaching Raven how to be the same. They practiced hand-to-hand together and had built up a rather good synchronization fighting side by side with a combination of magic and martial prowess they we're quite the duo. Their unique bond gave them an almost telepathic level of communication; they seemed to just always know where the other was and what they were doing during a fight.

But the answer to their most pressing problem had not as of yet shown itself. How they were going to deal with the Wurm was still an unknown.

"I feel like we aren't getting any closer to figuring it out." Jinx said, the smile fading from her face.

The unspoken question of what did not need to be voiced.

"We have to try, we're the only ones with a chance of being able to do it." Raven replied.

"I know but we have no idea where to even start."

"Well… let's go get something to eat, we'll try again later." Raven suggested.

"Yeah alright let's go."

They walked side by side down the dirt path leading from the city to the gate out of Azarath.

They wound up at a small café for lunch, they had finished eating and were now just sitting silently at their table. Raven was nursing her tea in a contemplative silence. Jinx with her holo ring on was leaned back In her chair staring up at the sky.

She reached up a hand trying to touch the sky only to grasp empty air. "I want to fly."

Raven looked up one eyebrow cocked.

"I feel like that is the greatest freedom you can have."

"I don't know I've been able to do it for a very long time, I don't feel particularly free when I do it." Raven replied.

"That's because you aren't doing it right, when I learn to fly I'll show you how." Jinx replied with a wide smile.

Raven couldn't help a small smile of her own. "Deal."

As they left the café heading back to Azarath a hidden observer reports back to his superiors.

* * *

After that Jinx completely engrossed herself in all of the material she could find on various methods of using magic to fly for about a week. Performing a menagerie of experiments, and otherwise giving it that stubbornness that was Jinx. However her Hex energy seemed just as determined to remain firmly on the ground.

They were walking down one of Jumps' streets talking about magic and flight. Jinx wearing her holo ring was not that much different, it turned her hair black, changed her eyes to a cool blue without the slit pupils, changed her skin color to something a bit more normal, and gave her a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. You'd have to have known Jinx pretty well in order to recognize her.

A storefront about a hundred yards in front of them suddenly exploded. Out of the dust came Mammoth followed quickly by Gizmo and two Hive lackeys, carrying bags of loot. Gizmo spotted them first, he squinted his eyes at them but immediately recognized her when her hands and eyes began glowing pink.

"Hey! You idiots it's the traitorous bitch!" He shouted to his teammates.

Raven stood ready next to Jinx both of them glowing with their respective powers, Raven had already pressed the emergency transponder on her T-comm. Jinx's holo ring flickered out as the two sides moved into standoff positions.

The civilians in the area had cleared out, the only sounds were from the destroyed shop front burning in the background.

"We'll finally be able to tie up this loose end." Gizmo said. "You know we've caught a lot of flak for taking so long to get you, but we got you now, bitch."

"I wouldn't bet on that." Raven replied lowly.

"Pffft, a Titan? You're really have gone as low as you can." Gizmo scoffed.

A streak of pink flashed by him and the bag of loot he was carrying split open spilling its contents. Jinx stood smiling one hand outstretched crackling with pink electricity.

"HIVE ATTACK!" Gizmo yelled abandoning the empty sack.

"I've got Mammoth, you get Gizmo." Raven said quickly before jumping off to the side.

Mammoth charged strait at her, she smirked pulling her fist back. "I've wanted to test this."

She threw her fist forward streaking obsidian energy, making solid contact with Mammoth's fist, there was a shockwave that cracked the pavement around them, but Raven hadn't budged an inch. Mammoth had enough time to stare dumbly down at Raven before he caught another soul powered uppercut to the jaw that sent him flying backwards and onto the two Hive goons.

He groaned and got back up slightly more wary of the dark sorceress before him, the other two were out cold however.

Jinx flipped and cartwheeled out of the way of Gizmo's wild attacks from his mechanical spider legs, seizing an opportunity she dodged to the side, grabbed one of the legs and brought her other hand down on it glowing pink, snapping the leg like a toothpick. Gizmo quickly retreated outside of immediate range and changed to ranged weapons, several rocket pods unfolded from his backpack and fired a barrage of missiles at Jinx.

She waved her arm into the air spraying out a cloud of pink, as the missiles flew into the cloud they failed catastrophically, detonating or falling apart. As the smoke of the explosions cleared Jinx saw the barrel of a gun leveled at her, she saw his finger tighten around the trigger. The gun went off at nearly the same time Raven tackled her. Jinx saw the gun go off in slow motion as she was pushed sideways through the air, and felt a searing pain shoot across her side as the bullet grazed past carving a shallow rift across her skin, reality suddenly came rushing back when she hit the shocking cold splash of passing through one of Raven's portals. She hit the ground with Raven on top of her as they skidded to a halt in a nearby building.

Jinx looked up into the amethyst eyes of her savior for several long seconds as she stared back into her own sapphire ones. Jinx let out a ragged breath. "That… that little…. SHIT."

Muffled shouting came from outside and the two quickly got up and headed back towards the street. Jinx moved into a sprint, she blasted the window out of the front of the building and jumped through the opening. She sprinted out across the street, sliding underneath Mammoth's slow attempt at a grab and ran up the side of a building. Jinx was in the groove, everything was moving in slow motion as she ran up the side of the building, like a sudden clarity had overcome her. One foot after the other up the wall until her momentum stopped, then pushing up into the air with pink sparks trailing in her wake. She twirled around in the air before swooping down under one of Gizmo's mechanical legs and back 20 meters into the air where she stopped… floating there.

"HAHAHAHAAHA!" She laughed.

She quickly zipped away as Gizmo tried to aim at her, easily dodging his shots. She stopped, summoning a bolt of hex energy into a spear looking for all the world like Zeus about hurl a bolt of lightning. Gizmo fired just as she threw the bolt. The bolt flew strait at the gun vaporizing the bullet and hitting the gun causing it to explode.

Gizmo reeled spewing a stream of curses. "Ack, HIVE let's get out of here!"

Gizmo released several smoke canisters, immediately choking the entire area with thick gray smoke, Jinx was about to give chase above the smoke when she heard it. A sharp hiss like the release of compressed air and then the flare of a rocket engine. A missile shot out of the top of the cloud of smoke arced over turning towards Raven who was coughing caught in the smoke. Jinx sped towards her.

She tackled into Raven as the missile was inches away, there was a crackle of pink, and with a flash of lightning they were gone. Another flash of pink twenty meters away inside a small shop, and the two came skidding to a halt as the missile hit the ground with a massive explosion. The glass storefront shattered pelting them with debris, but otherwise unharmed. Jinx got to her feet and helped Raven up, looking back out to the crater in the street.

"I'm going to kill that little shit." Jinx growled out clenching her fists.

"Jinx" Raven said placing her hand on Jin's shoulder. "Calm down, clear your mind you aren't in a state to be making that kind of decision."

She took a deep breath. "Yeah, you're right, but I don't think I'm going to change my mind, He tried to kill you that's where the line ends for him."

The T-car screeched to a halt outside and the two went out to meet the rest of the Titans.

* * *

Jinx lay on her back in the field around Azarath, Raven was off doing her own thing, they had found they could be apart from each other here, but always felt their connection. She stared up into the sky, and closed her eyes and took a deep breath. _If I see him again I'm gunna kill him, he threatened Raven that's going too far._

She opened her eyes and floated into an upright position hovering a few inches off the ground. She looked down and smiled, that made her immensely happy. _Time to go make Raven own up to her promise._

She flew off towards the city, she could have guessed where Raven was even if they weren't connected. The tallest structure in the city was a round stone tower, the interior had long since rotted away but the stone was still there, Raven liked to sit atop it and meditate. Way up there Azarath's thin atmosphere stopped reflecting light to make the sky blue, but instead a starless black void stretched out before you. Jinx trailed her fingertips along the tower's stone as she spiraled her way up to the top.

She stopped floating a few feet in front of Raven who was floating in the lotus position several inches above the broken stone of the tower's top.

"Hello Jinx." She said calmly and without opening her eyes.

"Come on I promised I'd teach you how to fly."

Raven opened her eyes and let out a slight sigh, with a small smile. "You say that as if I didn't already know how."

"I told you, you aren't doing it right, come on you said you'd let me show you."

"I did, alright lead the way." Raven replied stepping of the tower into the air next to Jinx.

"Ok follow me, we'll need to head back to Earth I know the perfect place."

They flew down towards the gates of Azarath.

"Jinx?"

"Mmmm?"

"How have you discovered how to fly…? What changed that allowed you to do so?"

Jinx thought about it for a second. "Well I suppose I found the right question to ask."

"What do you mean?"

"Well before it's like I was shouting at nature saying 'Let me fly!' and Nature was always just 'No you can't.' But then I asked 'Why not?' and Nature couldn't come up with an answer."

"That seems very much like you."

Jinx just smiled.

* * *

They soon found themselves floating high above the water of the bay, away from the city along the more rugged part of the coast.

Jinx stretched out her hand toward Raven, a smile on her face and the sun in her short pink hair. Raven took her hand, and Jinx took off. They flew low down to the water only a meter below them, Jinx reached her hand out touching the surface to spray water into the air, Raven reached her own hand out into the water, smiling as the water sparkled in the sun. Jinx pulled them closer to the coast flying along the rocky cliff face, lazily dodging around the pinnacles of rock jutting up from the foamy water, through an arch and then doing a loop up and over land flying low above the forest, a green sea stretching out before them quiet and beautiful. They took a turn now heading straight up into the sky up and up they went into the clouds. Vision disappeared as they flew through and only her grip on Jinx kept her on course. Suddenly bursting out the top of the cloud into another world, a sea of clouds in every direction, some taller clouds billowing into the sky, beautiful fluffy shapes bathed in the un-restricted rays of the sun in hues of orange yellow and purple. Raven looked over to Jinx who was smiling back at her, her hair was slightly damp from the cloud and her eyes caught the light of the sun, sparkling bright and pink. Raven moved closer bringing them together. Their hands released and Raven wrapped her arms around the thief's neck, while Jinx put her arms around Raven's waist, Jinx now flying with her back towards the ground and Raven above her, Raven closed her eyes and for the first time in a long time allowed her emotions to take over, bringing her lips to Jinx's. A simple kiss together as they flew high above the Earth below.

They sat on the bluff above the water. "You're right I didn't know how to fly."

"That's what I'm here for." Jinx replied putting her arm around ravens shoulders.

"This is strange for me, I've never felt this way before."

"Me neither, I figure we just go with it, do whatever feels right."

"How very like you to suggest that, but I'm inclined to agree with you this time, I don't think any amount of study or meditation could help me more than jumping into the unknown with you on this one."

"Damn right."

"Have you decided what to do about Gizmo?"

Unperturbed by Raven's sudden change of topic Jinx replied. "If he threatens us again, I'll end him; I have something truly worth protecting now."

* * *

It was a few days before the Hive showed themselves again, this time directly attacking them while they were on patrol one night. They now stood across from each other, Raven's motorcycle and their two helmets off to the side where they had skidded to a halt after narrowly dodging a flying car courtesy of Mammoth.

"I'll give you one chance to surrender before this gets ugly." Jinx said lowly.

"Ha, fat chance you and your little Titan buddy are going down." Gizmo shouted back.

Jinx turned to Raven. "Let me handle this, I need to do this myself the past belongs in the past, my past especially, allow me to put it back."

Raven nodded.

Jinx turned back to the two Hive members that had once been her trusted team mates. She floated a few inches into the air her eyes turning pink as lighting arced over her body.

"Last chance, do or die."

Gizmo pulled out two blasters from his pack and started a rapid fire barrage. Jinx easily reflected the shots with a shield, Mammoth charged at her, she easily dodged out of the way.

"Come on Mammoth I know you can't seriously mean to kill me, you might let someone else do it but, you'd never kill someone yourself."

The giant looked conflicted. "Yeah? So what? Why couldn't you have done the same? Then we could have stayed a team!"

"I don't work like that, I knew we were villains, killing someone felt like taking it a step to far, we weren't robbing candy stores and playing with the Titans anymore, we would be criminals, murderers, If I'm going to kill someone I need a reason to do it."

Jinx locked eyes with Mammoth, trying to convey all the feeling she had into that one stare. After a moment Mammoth deflated. "Yeah, I'm sitting this one out."

He walked over somewhat by Raven and sat down heavily. "She's very persuasive."

"Don't I know it." Raven replied.

Jinx smiled sweetly at her.

"FINE, I DON'T NEED YOU TO KILL THIS BITCH ANYWAY!" Gizmo shouted, unleashing a barrage of missiles from his pack.

Jinx threw out a wave of Hex energy that destroyed all the missiles except one, streaking strait at her she calmly snapped her fingers and the missile disappeared in a flash of pink and reappeared heading straight for Gizmo. He quickly scrambled away from it but the explosion mangled two of his mechanical legs. He now started randomly firing more energy shots, Jinx easily dodged between them and Raven brought up a shield around her and Mammoth.

"You're dangerous, reckless, and a demented little shit." Jinx called out.

Gizmo was yelling continuing the hailstorm of shots.

"You're like a mad dog, and I'm going to put you down, because you're threatening the people I care about."

The area was filled with smoke when Gizmo ended his barrage. With a whoosh Jinx cleared the smoke standing unscathed in front of Gizmo. She pulled her arm back and lightning crackled to life around her forming into a spear of brilliant pink in her hand.

"History belongs in the past, and that's all you are bad history."

She hurled her arm forward throwing the bolt, piercing strait through Gizmo and his pack.

"You… You bi.." Gizmo stated to say.

Jinx clenched her fist and the lightning spear exploded in a flash of pink, leaving behind a black burn mark and few pink embers floating off into the sky.

Raven walked forward and put her hand on Jinx shoulder. "How do you feel?"

"I'm not happy about it, but I can rationalize why it needed to be done, and I can live with that." Jinx replied with a slight shrug.

"That sounds like something I might say." Raven replied.

"Oh God I'm becoming the dark empress."

"Come on let's go home."

"Yeah, sounds good."

"Mammoth you know we could use someone like you in the Titans, I'm sure Robin would make sure you pay for your crimes in one way or another, but as long as you really want to change I'm sure he would take you." Raven said to the giant.

"I'll think about it, got some loose ends to tie up first." He replied.

* * *

The two decided to spend the night in Azarath, something they had done a few times before and had a place they could rest, so it was Noon the next day before they arrived back at Titans tower. Walking down the long bridge to the Tower's Island they were able to see a Justice League Shuttle sitting in front of the tower and the Titans assembled around it, talking to two JL members they couldn't recognize at this distance.

"What are the JL doing here?" Jinx asked.

"Nothing good."


End file.
